Time copies seized over Godse interview

8220;Pointless8221; is how Ganguly describes the whole exercise. 8220;It was an innocuous interview. Gopal Godse is an old man and what he has to say is of historical import. Also, I was curious and wanted to know what would drive someone to kill Gandhi.8221;

In the interview, the Pune-based Godse called Gandhi 8220;shrewd8221;. He said: 8220;Gandhi was shrewd to use his sainthood for politics. After his death, the government used him. The government knew that he was an enemy of the Hindus but they wanted to show that he was a staunch Hindu. So their first act was to put Hey Ram8217; into Gandhi8217;s mouth.8221; Godse also called the Mahatma 8220;the most cruel person for the Hindus in India. The most cruel person. That8217;s how I term him.8221; Describing Gandhi8217;s principle of peace as8220;bogus8221;, Godse said 8220;he was encouraging the Muslims to kill Hindus8221;.

The interview, according to Ganguly, had been done 8220;a long time ago. This was when Gandhi was listed for the Man of the Century8217;,8221; she said. 8220;When Gandhi didn8217;t make it and was a runner-up, there was a smaller amount of space for him and the interview wasn8217;t used.8221; It was put on Time magazine8217;s online edition instead. 8220;There was a tremendous response when it was put on the web. That8217;s when we decided to carry it in the magazine,8221; recalls Ganguly.

Time magazine8217;s General Manager South Asia Deepak Purie said it wasn8217;t the first time this had happened: 8220;A Customs official in Calcutta had blackened a story which Meenakshi Ganguly had done on the extinction of tigers. Before this we haven8217;t had any problems. Of course, sometimes they would stop the magazine at the airport if we carried the wrong map of India. They would just stamp across it, label it as not authentic8217; and that was it. Nothing like this.8221;

In Pune, Gopal Godse expressed surprised over the seizure of the magazine. Recalling the interview he gave to the magazine8217;s correspondent, he said: 8220;The Government should not act like this; it is not a Congress government. They are the ones who have lied to the nation in the name of Gandhi.8221;

Gandhi, Godse says, 8220;hijacked the nation 52 years ago8221;. Why? 8220;Because he threatened to kill himself if the Indian government did not give Rs 55 crore to feed his baby, Pakistan. By threatening to kill himself, Gandhi inflicted violence on the people of India. His treachery was brought to light by Nathuram and through the documents of the Indian government which the government hid as that would have created sympathy for Nathuram.8221;

Gandhi8217;s death, Godse says, was important for the Congress government.8220;The very moorings of the government depended on the popularity of the dead Gandhi. All that talk of truth and non-violence is nonsense. I know because I have seen how Gandhi fooled the people by discarding Subhash Bose and tried to take away the people8217;s attention from his army the Indian National Army.8221;