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I could have save Bapu : Bhiku Daji Bhilare, a freedom fighter
Posted Date: 30 Jan 2008 Resource Type: Articles/Knowledge Sharing Category: General
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Posted By: Sushil Kumar Patial Member Level: Gold
Rating:  Points: 4
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In 1944, this freedom fighter saved Gandhi from Godse’s knife. But for 60 yrs, he has regretted his absence on Jan 30, 1948 as he believes...
Bhiku Daji Bhilare (89) defied his doctor’s bed-rest dictat and reached Mani Bhavan at 8 am yesterday. There, after a short prayer meeting before the last-known urn containing Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes, he went to Girgaum Chowpatty, where the asthi was finally immersed.
Yesterday, 60 years after Gandhi’s death, Bhilare still regrets he was not present at Birla House on January 30, 1948, to protect his mentor from Nathuram Godse’s three bullets.
Walking down the beachfront for the immersion, Bhilare said sadly, “Had I been there, I would have taken the bullets in my chest.” Then, Bhilare was in Bhil village near Panchgani.
And it’s no idle boast. In 1944 when Godse tried to knife Gandhi in Panchgani, it was Bhilare who saved him.
“Gandhiji visited Panchgani every July and at a prayer meeting at a school I spotted Godse just as he removed the knife to move in for the kill.
I pounced on him and snatched the knife away. But that was where we made a big mistake instead of handing him over to the police, we allowed him to go. It was a grave mistake,” recalled Bhilare, who is now known as Guruji. “Bapu refused police protection and told us if anyone ever spoke of it, he would abandon everyone,” he added.
A wrestler in his time, age has caught up with Bhilare. In fact, he was released from Bombay Hospital just a week ago and was told to take complete rest. “This was his final journey. How could I stay behind? If death comes at 89, so be it?” he said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Harish Baijal accompanied Bhilare to Girgaum. “We would not have been here, if you [freedom fighters] had not made sacrifices,” Baijal told him with reverence.
Gandhi’s great-granddaughter Neelam Parikh, from Navsari, immersed the ashes. For the Mahatma’s family, it was a symbolic gesture as her maternal grandfather (Gandhi’s son Harilal) was not present at the funeral in 1948. “Today his (Harilal’s) soul will rest in peace. Maybe, Bapu would not have been so dedicated to the nation, had he been attached to the family,” she reasoned.
Just 100 people were present at the occasion.
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