The word ‘Godse’ is no longer unparliamentary except in reference to ‘Nathuram Godse’, lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has ruled.
Parliament had decided in 1956 to ban the use of the word ‘Godse”, the member had found out. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse in Jan 30, 1948 in New Delhi.
The order lifting the ban has brought much relief to Shiv Sena MP from Nashik Hemant Tukaram Godse who had pitched for removal of the word “Godse” from the list of “unparliamentary words”.
In letters to the presiding officers of both the Houses, he had wondered as to how can a MP’s surname be considered “unparliamentary”. “It is definately not my fault that my surname is ‘Godse’ and furthermore, I also cannot and will not change it as it is my ancestral surname,” he had told them pitching for deletion of the word from the unparliamentary category.
Contending that the ban casts “undue aspersion on my surname and that of my ancestors too”, he said that there are a large number of people of the Godse community in Maharashtra, to which he also belonged to.