Stating that an insult to Hindutva ideologue V. D. Savarkar was akin to insulting all freedom fighters as well as the country, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, his Shiv Sena faction and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) kicked-off the ‘Savarkar Gaurav Yatra’ across the State to celebrate Savarkar’s contributions and protest Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of him.
Mr. Shinde, accompanied by the BJP and his Shiv Sena faction leaders, spearheaded the charge in his bastion Thane in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), with ruling party activists raising slogans of ‘Savarkar ji ke saaman me, Hindustan maidan me’ (the whole of India has hit the streets to respect Savarkar).
While Mr. Shinde and the BJP’s show of strength was ostensibly against Mr. Gandhi’s repeated anti-Savarkar remarks and the Congress, the real target was to expose the ‘compromised‘ Hindutva of former Chief Minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray and his alliance with the ideologically opposed Congress and the NCP.
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With an eye to the civic polls and the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, Mr. Shinde lashed out at Mr. Thackeray for sticking on with the ideologically opposed Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as a constituent of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
“This yatra is a fitting reply to those who keep criticising and insulting Veer Savarkar. The message through this is that Maharashtra will never tolerate any insults against Savarkar…insulting Savarkar is tantamount to insulting the country and all freedom fighters and their contribution to India’s independence. Savarkar was exemplar of Hindutva’s purest ideals and yet, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress deliberately continue to disparage him,” Mr. Shinde said.
Leaders and ruling party activists donned caps bearing the legend ‘Mi Savarkar’ (I am Savarkar) while BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and several other BJP leaders changed their social media profiles to the same legend.
Attacking Mr. Thackeray, Mr. Shinde said that when Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had allegedly ‘insulted’ Savarkar (in 2004), late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray had called for protests against Mr. Aiyar.
“And yet today, his son [Uddhav Thackeray] is sitting side by side with those [the Congress] who have repeatedly insulted Savarkar and Bal Thackeray’s grandson [Aaditya Thackeray] is embracing Rahul Gandhi. This is a hurtful scene and unfortunate for Maharashtra,” Mr. Shinde said, demanding to know why Mr. Thackeray lacked the courage to unequivocally condemn Mr. Gandhi.
He further said that the MVA’s union was merely for the sake of power, and had no ideological basis unlike the BJP and Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena of earlier times.
“People had given us [BJP-Sena] a mandate after the 2019 Assembly election. But you [Uddhav Thackeray] had forsaken all that. Balasaheb’s ideals have long been jettisoned by you. Now, it is only ‘me and my family’ for you [Uddhav] while true Sena workers have been abandoned,” said Mr. Shinde.
Stating that he condemned Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Shinde rhetorically asked if the Congressman had the courage to endure tortures as Savarkar did in Andaman’s Cellular Jail.
Mr. Thackeray, at his recent rally in Nashik’s Malegaon, had rebuked Mr. Gandhi for his anti-Savarkar statements, remarking that the Sena (UBT) regarded Savarkar as “a deity” and would “not tolerate any insult” against him. However, the Shinde faction and the BJP had dubbed Mr. Thackeray’s condemnation of Mr. Gandhi as “insincere.”
Incidentally, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, too, delivered a veiled rebuked to Mr. Gandhi by stating that the Savarkar issue was “a thing of the past” and not a national issue.
“We may have said a few things against Savarkar but it was not personal. We cannot ignore the sacrifice made by Savarkar ji for the independence of the country,” Mr. Pawar had said recently in Nagpur.
Published - April 02, 2023 09:35 pm IST
