Why was Rahul’s demand to bring Savarkar-Godse family relations on record rejected?
#News Bureau, June2,2025
Rahul Gandhi Faces Setback in Attempt to Link Savarkar and Godse Families in Court
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has suffered a legal setback in his attempt to officially establish a familial connection between Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Nathuram Godse during court proceedings. A special MP-MLA court in Pune has rejected his petition seeking to bring the matrilineal genealogy of Satyaki Savarkar—the complainant in a defamation case—on record.
In his petition, Gandhi alleged that Satyaki Savarkar, who is the son of Ashok Savarkar (Vinayak Savarkar’s brother) and Himani Savarkar, had intentionally concealed his maternal lineage. Himani Savarkar is the niece of Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin. Gandhi argued that this concealment was an effort to suppress the documented link between the Savarkar and Godse families.
However, in a ruling issued on May 28, Special Judge Amol Shinde dismissed the petition, stating that the matrilineal genealogy of the complainant is not relevant to the defamation case and therefore does not need to be placed on record.
What was in Rahul Gandhi’s plea?
In his plea, Rahul Gandhi, through his lawyer Milind Pawar, had claimed that Satyaki’s mother Himani is originally from the Godse family, being Nathuram Godse’s niece. Despite this, Satyaki had ‘deliberately, systematically and cleverly’ concealed his matrilineal lineage. The plea also alleged that Satyaki had concealed the fact that Vinayak Savarkar was a co-accused in Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination case, though he was acquitted due to lack of evidence.
In his plea, Rahul Gandhi cited ‘historical facts’ to say that both Savarkar and Godse were staunch supporters of ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and considered Muslims and Christians ‘irrelevant’ in India. He claimed that the two conspired together to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi because they considered Gandhi ‘soft’ towards Muslims during Partition.
According to the report of the English website, Rahul Gandhi cited Savarkar’s 1963 published book ‘Six Glorious Epox of Indian History’ and claimed that Savarkar described Muslims and Christians as destroyers of Hinduism. The petition also said that Savarkar advocated the use of rape as a political weapon. He also wrote that young and beautiful Muslim girls should be captured, converted and given as a reward to Maratha warriors, just as Muslim ruler Tipu Sultan distributed Hindu women among his warriors.
Satyaki Savarkar had claimed in his complaint that Rahul Gandhi had said in his speech in London that Savarkar had written in his book how he and his friends attacked a Muslim youth and ‘enjoyed’ it. Satyaki called it defamation of Savarkar.
The special court of Pune rejected Rahul Gandhi’s petition and made it clear that only the alleged defamatory statement will be investigated in this case and the relationship of Savarkar-Godse family has no relevance to it. The matter now depends on Satyaki Savarkar to prove his claims against Rahul Gandhi.
