A new controversy has started after the comparison of Veer Savarkar with Mahatma Gandhi in the government’s magazine “Atimid Jan”. From Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson to Trinamool Congress leaders are raising questions as to why a special issue has been taken out on Savarkar in Gandhi Smriti Sansthan. In an ongoing TV debate on this, Congress spokesperson Ragini Nayak said that even today without Gandhi’s crutches, BJP is not able to make Savarkar stand on its feet even after putting up big photos in Parliament and doing all the glorification.
He said, “Who is Savarkar? He was imprisoned for life in 1910 and started writing apologies from 1911. They started taking oaths of loyalty to the British. To avoid solitary consignment in the same cellular jail, Joe and his accomplices who were on hunger strike refused to join them.
Ragini alleged that Savarkar was the first to sow the seeds of the partition of India in 1937 and spoke of the Two Nation Theory – separate Hindi and Muslim nations. He said that from 1924 to 1937, Savarkar got a bungalow from the British Empire and was living his life on a pension of 60 rupees per month.
The Congress spokesperson said that in the “Quit India Movement”, the Congress was giving the slogan of Quit India, while Savarkar was getting the British recruited in the army.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi hit back saying that when Savarkar was imprisoned for two lives, Congress President William Wedderburn was a British government secretary.
He said, “Whatever you said, in spite of all that, Savarkar seemed worthy of giving black water to the British, imprisoned for two lives, while Lord Mountbatten was able to maintain family relations. It was a great struggle.”