“True counter to Savarkar’s fundamentalism is Gandhiwad”: Karnataka Health Minister Gundu Rao

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], October 3 (ANI): Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said that the “true way” to counter Savarkar’s fundamentalism was Gandhi’s democratic principles and his approach.

Speaking to ANI on Thursday, Rao said that someone like Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, was a fundamentalist derived from the fundamentalist ideology of Savarkar.

He stated that the “danger of fundamentalism” was that those who believe in that ideology think that they are doing the right thing, even if it is a heinous crime.

“Someone like Godse who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi was a fundamentalist, as he believed what he was doing was right. This is the danger of fundamentalism. Even though you do all the most heinous crimes, you think that you are doing it for a greater cause… So that is the danger of Savarkar’s fundamentalism… For the cause, any means can be taken, any means can be adopted,” Rao said.

He reiterated that the “greatest counter” to such ideology was someone like Mahatma Gandhi and that his democratic principles and approach–Gandhiwad–were the “best approach.”

He said that Gandhi, despite being a deeply religious man, was not against religion and always believed in the democratic process.

“One of the counters–I think the greatest counter is someone like Gandhi, who was a deeply religious man. He was not against religion. He was for all the people. You know, the only thing he believed in was a democratic process.

He believed in taking everybody along. He believed in consensus. He believed in reconciliation. So that is the one that, I think, the true way to counter Savarkar’s fundamentalism is Gandhi’s democratic principles and his approach. ‘Gandhiwad’, I think, is the best approach,” he added.

Earlier on Wednesday, while addressing a book launch of the Kannada version of “Gandhi’s Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India” by journalist Dhirendra K. Jha, Gundu Rao said that Savarkar’s fundamentalist ideology was very different from the Indian culture and it wouldn’t be Savarkar’s argument but Mahatma Gandhi’s that should win in the country.