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India's Hindu Nationalists Flood Twitter, Hailing Assassin of Iconic Leader Mahatma Gandhi

India observes the birthday of the iconic leader of the national freedom movement Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, fondly known as Mahatma Gandhi, on 2 October. On Friday, President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among those who paid floral tributes at Gandhi's memorial on the banks of the Yamuna River in the capital.
Sputnik

On the day India paid tribute to its iconic leader Mahatma Gandhi on his 151st birthday, Hindu nationalists flooded the social media platform, hailing his assassin Nathuram Godse.

#NathuramGodseZindabad, or hail Nathuram Godse has been trending on Twitter.

Godse fatally shot Gandhi, who India formally calls the "Father of the Nation" on 30 January 1948 at a prayer meeting in New Delhi. The assassin was hanged on 15 November 1949.

Hardcore nationalists treat him as an icon and hail his assassination of Gandhi.

"In fact, honour, duty and love of one's own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force", reads a typical tweet.

​Tweets hailing Godse have been swelling by the minute.

​Many Twitterians also expressed dismay at the public expression for the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi: "He was a coward, who did the cowardly act because of his bigotry", reads on tweet.

​In 2019, a lawmaker from the federal ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) created a flutter in parliament, when she hailed Godse as "Deshbhakt" or a patriot during a debate.  

The lawmaker from Bhopal in central Madhya Pradesh, Pragya Singh Thakur however, apologised for her remarks after the main opposition Congress Party protested the conduct and the BJP distanced itself from her remarks.

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