IAS officer 'thanks' Gandhi-assassin Godse; invites wrath

An IAS officer has found herself on the defensive after she tweeted in support of Nathuram Godse. IAS officer Nidhi Choudhari's tweet, thanking Godse and demanding that Gandhiji's face be removed from Indian currencies, has gone viral. 

"What an exceptional celebration of 150th birth anniversary year is going on. High time, we remove his face from our currency, his statues from across the world, rename institutions/roads named after him! That would be a real tribute from all of us! ThankU #Godse for 30.01.1948 (sic)" Choudhari tweeted on May 17. 

Following the tweet, NCP has sought action against Choudhari. "We demand immediate suspension of IAS officer Nidhi Choudhari for her derogatory tweet against Mahatma Gandhi. She gloried Nathuram Godse, this should not be tolerated.," NCP leader Jitendra Awhad said in Mumbai on Saturday. Nidhi Choudhari has deleted the tweet, but screenshots of the same are doing rounds on Twitter. 

She later claimed that people have "misunderstood" her tweet on Gandhiji. "I have deleted my tweet of 17.05.2019 w.r.t. GandhiJi because some people misunderstood it. If only they had followed my timeline since 2011 they would've understood that I would NEVER even dream of insulting GandhiJi I bow before him with deepest regard & will do till last breath (sic)," Nidhi clarified on Twitter on Friday. 

However, Choudhari's response failed to save herself from Twitterati's wrath.

In the recent past, many have made it to the news for their remarks on Godse and Mahatma Gandhi. During the election campaign, terror-accused and BJP's Bhopal candidate Pragya Thakur had created controversy by calling Godse a "patriot". She had later apologised for the remark. Eventually, she won against Congress's Digvijaya Singh from Bhopal. 

On May 29, a BJP MLA from Mhow, MP, Usha Thakur had also glorified Godse, calling him a "nationalist".