The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha on Thursday asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath to rename Meerut to Godse Nagar, in honour of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse. The Hindutva organisation also proposed that Ghaziabad and Hapur should be renamed Digvijay Nagar and Avaidyanath Nagar after two former head priests of the Gorakhnath Math. Adityanath is the current chief of the Math.

Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha national vice president Ashok Sharma, in a press release, justified the demand for renaming these cities saying that the Uttar Pradesh government had recently renamed places named by Mughal kings.


The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha also said that it organised a programme in honour of Godse and his accomplice Narayan Apte at its office in Meerut on Thursday. The programme was chaired by the Hindu Yuva Vahini’s regional president Narendra Tomar, the organisation added. The Hindu Yuva Vahini is an organisation founded by Adityanath.

The Hindu Mahasabha celebrates November 15 as “Balidan Divas” each year to mark the hanging of Godse and Apte on November 15, 1949.

In the press release, the Hindutva organisation added that a pooja was conducted to honour Godse and Apte. Following this, Sharma told the gathering that Godse and Apte were the only “great figures” in history who did not protest the death sentence granted to them. He also claimed that Godse and Apte were the favourite students of “Swatantryaveer” Savarkar.

Sharma also described Godse as a “great thinker, a nationalist and a great journalist”, the press release said.