Daijiworld Media Network - Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad, Feb 9: The proposed staging of the controversial play ‘I Am Nathuram Godse’ was cancelled in Ahmedabad on Monday amid mounting protests by the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and the Youth Congress, extending a row that has already forced cancellations in Rajkot and Jamnagar.
The play was scheduled to be performed at the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Auditorium in the Bodakdev area. Organisers decided to call off the show as demonstrations intensified across the city, citing concerns over maintaining law and order.
Sources said that nearly 75 per cent of the tickets had already been sold online, with each ticket priced at Rs 275, before the cancellation was announced.
Reacting to the development, Gujarat Congress spokesperson Parthivraj Kathwadia said the play was unacceptable in a state closely associated with Mahatma Gandhi. “How can a play based on Nathuram Godse — the assassin of the Father of the Nation and independent India’s first terrorist — be allowed in Gandhi’s birthplace and workplace?” he asked.
Kathwadia said Gujaratis and followers of Gandhian values would never accept what he described as an insult to Mahatma Gandhi. “The people of Gujarat have rejected Godse’s ideology. That is why shows in Rajkot and Jamnagar were stopped, and now the Ahmedabad performance has also been cancelled,” he said.
He added that the Congress would continue to oppose any attempt to promote or legitimise Godse’s ideas. “For Gujarat and for India, Godse will always remain a villain. Mahatma Gandhi was, is, and will always remain the hero — not just for India, but for the entire world,” he said.
On Sunday, NSUI and Youth Congress activists staged protests in several parts of Ahmedabad, including Bodakdev and along Sindhu Bhavan Road.
Demonstrators raised slogans opposing Nathuram Godse and wrote messages on public walls declaring that a play centred on Gandhi’s assassin would not be tolerated in Gujarat.
As part of the protests, activists also symbolically defaced images of Godse with black ink. Congress leaders warned that the performance would not be allowed to go ahead if staged in the city.
The controversy first erupted in Rajkot last week, where the show was cancelled after Congress workers entered the venue ahead of the performance and allegedly damaged stage property. Protesters accused the play of glorifying Godse and insulting Mahatma Gandhi.
Following the Rajkot incident, police detained around 40 Congress workers. The organisers later announced the cancellation of the show, offered refunds to ticket-holders, and apologised to audience members.
With the Ahmedabad programme now called off, ‘I Am Nathuram Godse’ has been withdrawn from all three cities in Gujarat amid sustained political and public opposition.