The Hindu Mahasabha on Tuesday said it will change the name of Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut to Nathuram Godse Nagar if it wins the upcoming mayor’s election.
Nathuram Godse was a Hindu Mahasabha member who killed Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, fondly called Mahatma Gandhi, on January 30, 1948. He was also a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member, the Hindu nationalist organisation which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also part of earlier.
The Mahasabha also said it will change ‘Islamic names’ of other places and rename them after ‘great Hindu men’.
In its manifesto, the right-wing Hindu Mahasabha said its first priority will be to make India a “Hindu Rashtra” and next is to protect “Gau Mata”.
Taking a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJ) and Shiv Sena, the Mahasabha said they were moving away from their ideology as there was an increased influx of people from other communities in the two parties.
“If Hindu Mahasabha gets enough number of councillors and wins the mayor’s post, the name of Meerut will be changed to Nathuram Godse Nagar and Islamic names of different places in the city and the district will be named after Hindu great men,” said Hindu Mahasabha National Vice president Pandit Ashok Sharma.
Abhishek Agarwal, Hindu Mahasabha’s new chief of Meerut district for the urban body elections, said the organisation will contest in all the wards. He said “patriotic” candidates will be identified and they will have to give an undertaking that they will be committed to furthering the organisation’s ambitions.
This story was originally published in outlookindia.com . Read the full story here