Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel 's speech after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
"Friends and Comrades,
The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. I do not know what to tell you and how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the Father of the Nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that.
"Nevertheless, we will never see him again as we have seen him for these many years. We will not run to him for advice and seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not to me only, but to millions and millions in this country. And it is a little difficult to soften the blow by any other advice that I or anyone else can give you.
The light has gone out, I said, and yet I was wrong. For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light.
The light that has illumined this country for these many years will illumine this country for many more years, and a thousand years later, that light will be seen in this country and the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts.
For that light represented something more than the immediate past, it represented the living, the eternal truths, reminding us of the right path, drawing us from error, taking this ancient country to freedom.
All this has happened when there was so much more for him to do. We could never think that he was unnecessary or that he had done his task. But now, particularly, when we are faced with so many difficulties, his not being with us is a blow most terrible to bear.
A madman has put an end to his life, for I can only call him mad who did it, and yet there has been enough of poison spread in this country during the past years and months, and this poison has had an effect on people’s minds.
"We must face this poison, we must root out this poison, and we must face all the perils that encompass us, and face them not madly or badly, but rather in the way that our beloved teacher taught us to face them."
"Just as my dear brother, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, has spoken to you. My heart is aching. What shall I say to you? My tongue is tied. This is a day of sorrow, shame and agony for India. Today I went to Gandhiji at about 4 p.m.,and was with him for about an hour...
"Hardly had I reached home when somebody broke the dreadful need to me that Gandhiji was shot at thrice by a Hindu young man in the prayer ground.I immediately hurried back to Birla House and was near Gandhiji.His eyes were closed but his face was as calm and serene as before I could even detect a streak of compassion and forgiveness over his ebbing face...
Friends , the occasion demands not anger but earnest heart searching from us all. If we give vent to our understable anger, it would mean that we have forgotten our beloved master's teachings .
so soon after his death. And let me say that even vin his lifetime we only haltingly followed our master.
The burden which of late India has been called to bear is a tremendous one. It would have broken our backs if we had not support of that great man.
That support has now gone, but Gandhiji will live in our hearts forever... Tomorrow at 4 p.m. his body will turn to ashes but his imperishable teachings will abide with us.
The mad youth who killed him was wrong if he thought that hereby he was destroying his noble mission.
Perhaps God wanted Gandhiji's mission to fulfill and prosper through death".
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