PUNE: Arrests of Major (Retd) Ramesh Upadhyay and Hindutva activist Sameer Kulkarni has brought Pune-based Abhinav Bharat into sharp focus.
What has added to the excitement is the background of Abhinav Bharat’s president Himani Savarkar (niece of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Naturam Godse) who married freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s nephew late Ashok Savarkar.
Resentful that some television channels were creating sensation by dragging her uncle’s name without any context, the 61-year-old Himani told DNA on Thursday that the original Abhinav Bharat (AB) had been disbanded by Savarkar after Independence “as there was no longer a need for an armed struggle”.
She said that the new Abhinav Bharat was revived in 2006 and one of its activists, Sameer Kulkarni, requested her to be its president.
“As I am president of the Hindu Mahasabha, which is a political party, I declined the offer. However, since the new Abhinav Bharat was created as an apolitical social organisation, I accepted the responsibility,” she said. Stating that she knew Kulkarni “as he was associated with the RSS”, Himani said that AB has about 500 members.
She said she did not know Upadhyay. She described Kulkarni as “level headed, but someone who will not sit quiet if he suffers injustice. She blamed the government for failing to tackle terrorism and said the entire country was being held hostage to “vote bank politics by the so-called ‘secular’ government”.
Drawing mythological references and citing the Maratha warrior king Shivaji’s battle against the Mughals, Himani said, “We are not followers of the ideology which says offer the second cheek if someone slaps you on your face. We retaliate if someone dares us.”
An architect, Himani discontinued her practice in 2000 to spread Veer Savarkar’s message. After the death of her father, Gopal Godse, she began working “on his unfulfilled dream as per the wish expressed in his will”.
Though AB never supported violence, she felt “killing those who spread terrorism was justified”. “Just this week, the home minister RR Patil advocated ‘bullet for bullet’, then what is wrong in advocating blast for blast? she asked.
She questioned if Hindus were expected to sit and witness terrorist attacks as has been happening for the past 15 years?
