I read my morning newspaper in the toilet, be it paper newspaper or internet newspaper. It was on one of those fine relaxed mornings that the websites screamed – Gandhiji didnt say “hey ram” when he was shot! What a news, I was stupefied… how could they say that?
The the great grandson of Gandhi had clarified, that he indeed did say “hey ram” when he was shot! Then some other guy checked FIR and said that Gandhiji didnt say that! Totally confused by all this, I had to call my historical sources to confirm what Gandhiji actually said and that was indeed quite a revelation. And as per sources the following had happened on that day.
Around 5.00 pm, Gandhiji had a cup of tea, and was planning for the evening prayer. Nathuram Godse was waiting for his time in the crowd, and from the appearance it seemed like he was calm. Around 5.10-5.15 pm, Gandhiji walked to the prayer ceremony and Nathuram godse came forward on his way. He touched Gandhijis feet at exact 5.15 pm.
From there my sources tell me an authentic story. It seems that after touching gandhiji’s feet Godse’s and Gandhiji’s eyes met, time froze and they had a conversation. No, I wont go into the transcript of the conversation, but most of Godse’s speech was in hindi mixed with marathi.
Apparently he told during that time, what a mistake Gandhiji had done by allowing partition, rather than helping the people, he had punished them, by allowing the division of a nation. Godse thanked him for that and said something like “with great power comes great responsibilities”, and took out his revolver.
But Gandhiji argued back about the greatness of non-violence and peaceful protest. He argued his case also strongly and a great debate ensued. Just like the tapasya of Maharshi Vishwamitra forced the gods to appear, this debate forced the appearance of all the devas of the heaven. To resolve the debate and to continue the cycle of karma they decided to show the future to them.
Suddenly the future vision came in front of them, a future where Gandhiji would be just a photo on the wall in all government offices, a great person whom all can claim rights for, but no one follows, where what he stood for made no impact, where they might even argue about what his final words were. Gandhiji just realizing the future was shocked! His principles will die with him, what he had thought as a golden age would be just a dream.
Even Godse realized his dream will be just a dream, there would be no hindu rashtra, no one would be treated equally be it a hindu or a muslim and any dream of realizing the a ram rajya would remain that – a dream. No one will even try to understand his position clearly. He will be potrayed as a murderer!
Gandhiji wend deep into shock trying to understand the future and assimilate it and just then, exactly at 5.17pm Godse’s finger pressed the trigger. As the bullets pierced Gandhiji’s chest, still in shock with the vision of the future, Gandhiji uttered his final words – Aila!