It was an evening like any other. The sun hadn’t set yet, but there was a slight chill in the air. The large Gulmohar and Mango trees that lined the Birla House swayed gently in the breeze. A crowd of people waited quietly and patiently by the lawn next to the house. The prayer meeting was to start at 5 p.m. but Gandhi was still in the mansion. Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte exchanged nervous glances at each other. They were here just ten days earlier, along with Digambar Badge and Madanlal Pahwa. The plan then was for Madanlal to throw a grenade to disperse the crowd and when Gandhi was alone on the prayer platform, for Badge to throw another bomb towards Gandhi. But Badge panicked and Madanlal was arrested in the milee that followed. They had failed then, but the revised plan was much simpler. Get as close to Gandhi as possible and shoot him in the chest. Godse had earlier tried to assassinate Gandhi by stabbing him with a knife in May 1944 and then again in September, but those previous attempts had not succeeded either. Gandhi’s opposition to the Hindu Mahasabha, the RSS was intolerable. His appeasement of Muslim was inexcusable. It was time for this great country to proudly and unflinchingly embrace its Hindu heritage and return it to its former glory. But the Congress party with their secular and socialist policies stood in the way. For the honor of the sacrifices made by generations of Hindu warriors like Shivaji Manahraj and Rana Pratap Singh fighting against ruthless and plundering foreign invaders, for the honour of Hindutva that Veer Sawarkar had prescribed, for the honor of the country, Gandhi needed to be silenced.
“Gandhiji, Gandhiji,” someone shouted out, as the frail old man, aided by two of his nieces, emerged from the mansion and started walking towards the lawn.
Godse pushing people aside stepped in front of Gandhi and fired three shots.
Mouthing the words, “Hey Ram, Hey Ram,” Gandhi collapsed.
Half an hour later he was declared dead.
The date: January 30th.
The year: 1947.