Gandhiji would have been mortified by the executions of Godse and Apte: Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Chennai: Former Governor of West Bengal, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and author of The Undying Light: A personal History of Independent India, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, on Saturday (January 17, 2025) said that the post-Independence Government of India could have opened a new chapter by not handing death penalty to assassins of Mahatma Gandhi — Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte.

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In a conversation with novelist and publisher David Davidar, Mr. Gandhi said, “Handing of the death penalty to Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte was singularly unfortunate. The first executions in Independent India were of Godse and Apte. I have no doubt that Gandhi would have been mortified. If they had not been handed the death penalty, it could have been transformational and healing. The new government could have opened a new chapter in India.”

Mr. Gandhi added that he considered Rajagopalachari as his grandfather and Mahatma Gandhi as “everyone’s Grandfather.”

An appraisal on Nehru’s legacy

Asked about Jawaharlal Nehru and his appraisal of his legacy, Mr. Gandhi said, “He was essentially a historian, a democrat and a man of peace. He was a natural man of letters.” He said that this combination made him an apt first Prime Minister of independent India as the country needed a new history.

However, Mr. Gandhi said that some decisions that he took during his tenure as Prime Minister were incomprehensible. “In 1953, his arrest of Sheikh Abdullah (one of the most recognisable Kashmiri leaders) and holding him in prison for 11 years without trial is a blot on him. His dismissal of the Namboodripad’s (Communist) government in Kerala was also incomprehensible. He was extremely fallible but he was honest and sincere. With Abdullah, there was remorse. When did we ever see any serious politician in India say that I made a mistake,” he wondered.

Mr. Gandhi further added, “We have to move from constitutional morality to constitutional conscience. Silence and compliance are not constitutionalism.”

Gopalkrishna Gandhi on his tenure as West Bengal Governor

At last, Mr. Gandhi had his own apologies to offer to the former Chief Minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

“Let me say sorry (on his stint as West Bengal’s Governor). I made a public statement on Nandigram which in my view was necessary. But I think that instead of making a public statement, I should have told Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, that what happened was horrible and that I was going to make a statement. I didn’t take the Chief Minister into confidence,” he said.

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