NCP activists oppose staging of ‘Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoye’

THANE - An angry group of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) activists Thursday opposed the staging of the controversial Marathi play “Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoye” at a theatre here.

The play is an account of Mahatma Gandhi, from the viewpoint of his assassin, Nathuram Godse.

The activists, numbering over 200, shouted slogans outside the Gadkari Theatre and attempted to stop the staging of the play, but were rounded up by a strong police posse stationed there to ward off trouble.

“The play is being staged first time in Thane after the Bombay High Court lifted the central government’s ban on it around five years ago. I find it unfortunate since the play has had over 625 shows all over the state, including Mumbai, very peacefully,” the play’s director Vinay Apte told IANS.

The play - which he termed a “White Paper on (Mahatma) Gandhi Assassination” - was banned all over India by the central government in 2001 after a ruckus in Parliament.

The producers of the play challenged the ban move in the court, which finally lifted the stay five years later.

Apte said that though there has been heavy public demand from people of Thane, certain political opposition has thwarted all attempts to stage it here.

“The play has been cleared by all the concerned agencies and has been running peacefully across the state. So it is the duty of the police and the civic authorities to facilitate its staging,” Apte said.

Apte, an acclaimed stage, and Marathi and Bollywood films actor, said that “Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoye” attempted to portray the other side of the story based on authentic documents and without any fiction involved.

He regretted that even 60 years after the tragedy of the assassination of the Father of the Nation, some people are not willing to listen to “the other side of the story” as told by Godse.