20000219

Gandhi killer's

brother interview:

3000 copies of

Time seized

in Calcutta

NEW DELHI: A customs officer in Calcutta seized 3,000 copies of Time magazine's Feb 21 edition in order to black out an interview with the brother of Mohandas Gandhi's assassin, magazine employees said on Friday.

"One man in Calcutta is acting as an arbiter on what 2 million Indians should read or not read," said Michael Fathers, Time's bureau chief in New Delhi.

He said another 9,000 copies of the magazine, which were flown separately to Bombay, New Delhi and Madras, were not seized.

The customs officer in the eastern city of Calcutta said the magazine would be distributed once the article had been blacked out because it might incite communal violence, magazine officials said.

The interview with Gopal Godse, brother of Nathuram Godse, who assassinated the man most Indians consider the father of their nation, was conducted some time ago, when Time was considering naming Gandhi as its "Man of the Century".

The interview subsequently appeared on the magazine's website, and then was included in the Feb 21 edition.

"Gopal Godse didn't say anything different to what was contained in his late brother's statement," said Meenakshi Ganguly, the correspondent who conducted the interview.

Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fundamentalist who objected to Gandhi's consideration of Muslims before and after the partition of India, shot and killed the independence leader in 1948 and was subsequently hanged.

In the interview Gopal Godse said that Gandhi's peace principle was "bogus" and "he was encouraging the Muslims to kill Hindus".

He also called Gandhi "the most cruel person for the Hindus in India".ÑAP