Congress govts gave Savarkar medical aid, acknowledged his status as 'freedom fighter', released a stamp on him. But post-2000, as party lines hardened, so did views on the divisive figure
The Congress has sought to put a lid on the heat generated by Rahul Gandhi’s remarks concerning Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, after this threatened to scald attempts to forge Opposition unity. After Congress ally Shiv Sena (UBT), worried about its Maharashtra base, raised the matter with Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, an agreement was reached to cool off on Savarkar for now.
But it was neither the first time, nor the last, that the Congress has struggled with how to view the Hindu Mahasabha leader, who fought the British but is identified now more with fashioning Hindutva as a political ideology, and has been adopted by the Sangh Parivar as one of its icons. .
Congress govts gave Savarkar medical aid, acknowledged his status as 'freedom fighter', released a stamp on him. But post-2000, as party lines hardened, so did views on the divisive figure
But it was neither the first time, nor the last, that the Congress has struggled with how to view the Hindu Mahasabha leader, who fought the British but is identified now more with fashioning Hindutva as a political ideology, and has been adopted by the Sangh Parivar as one of its icons.P
ost-2000, amidst the rise of the BJP and its glorification of Savarkar, the Congress view has hardened, with the party targeting him as a “coward” who had pleaded with the British for forgiveness.
The comments by Rahul that led to the recent controversy also were along the same lines. Asked whether he could have apologised to escape the defamation conviction, which led to his disqualification as an MP, Rahul said: “I am not Savarkar that I would apologise. I am a Gandhi and a Gandhi does not apologise.”
Savarkar the person
While studying in the UK, Savarkar joined other Indians abroad who had leant their efforts to fight the British rule back home. In March 1910, a 27-year-old Savarkar was arrested over these activities. While being extradited back home, he escaped from a steamer near the coast of France, and swam ashore. As that episode made headlines, Savarkar was rearrested and handed over to the British.
At the age of 28, Savarkar was sentenced to two life terms and sent to Cellular Jail in the Andamans. The prison was meant to break the most hardened of prisoners, and Savarkar also faced torture and brutality.
He was released from jail in 1924 following contested “mercy petitions” and a promise to not participate in political activities
A new chapter in his life started with his election as President of the Hindu Mahasabha at Ahmedabad in 1937. He continued in the role until 1943.
After Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination in January 1948 by Nathuram Godse, who was a member of the Hindu Mahasabha, Savarkar was tried, but was acquitted by court.
Savarkar and politics
On November 22, 1957, during proceedings in the Lok Sabha, Raja Mahendra Pratap, an Independent MP from Mathura, moved a Bill “to recognise the service to the country of certain persons, namely, Shri Vir Savarkar, Shri Barindra Kumar Ghose (brother of Shri Aurobindo Ghose) and Dr Bhupendra Nath Datta (brother of Swami Vivekananda)”.
The Deputy Speaker allowed the Bill to be introduced, but objections were raised by Congress members. Finally, there was a division of votes, with 48 votes in favour and 75 against the introduction of the Bill. Mahendra Pratap walked out, declaring: “I hope every Bengali and every Maratha will also walk out.”
Support for Mahendra Pratap came from unexpected quarters: CPI MP and Left stalwart A K Gopalan. The Kasaragod MP said: “There was a discussion whether this Bill can be introduced. Then the Deputy Speaker gave the ruling that it can be introduced. After that, it was opposed. This is a very unusual thing that even at the very introduction a Bill is being opposed.”
Gopalan’s argument in turn found another supporter: Feroze Gandhi, the grandfather of Rahul Gandhi. “This action of opposing the introduction of the Bill by the government amounts almost to a vote of no-confidence in the Deputy Speaker,” Feroze Gandhi said.
In 1965, when Savarkar was critically ill, the Congress government led by Lal Bahadur Shashtri released Rs 3,900 for his help from the Home Minister’s fund, and later gave another Rs 1,000. The Maharashtra government, also led by the Congress, granted Rs 300 per month relief to Savarkar from September 1964 until his demise on February 26, 1966.
By that time, Indira Gandhi had taken over as leader of the Congress and government. With the passing of the baton from leaders forged in the fires of the freedom struggle, the nature of politics had already started changing.
Two days after Savarkar’s death, some members of the Bhartaiya Jana Sangh (the predecessor of the BJP) and Praja Socialist Party requested the Lok Sabha Speaker (Akali Dal-turned-Congressmen Hukam Singh) for a reference of condolence. The Speaker rejected this, saying it “would be creating a new precedent because we usually do not make such a reference to such personalities and dignitaries. Therefore, however great our respect for the departed person, we should avoid breaking the precedents that have been set up.”
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Satya Narayan Sinha backed the Speaker.
Again, it was a CPI MP, H N Mukherjee (Calcutta Central seat), who objected. “The passing away of Vir Savarkar is a matter of such national importance that Members of Parliament sitting on a day when that happens ought to register our feelings. We do not do it; it’s something unheard of and unthinkable. If rules preclude us from condoling the death of a very great man merely because he did not have the dubious distinction of having been a member of the Central Legislative Assembly where Shri Satya Narayan Sinha was a luminary, this is something I cannot comprehend.”
In response, Sinha conceded: “We can do it (offer condolence)
https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/savarkar-row-cpi-mp-feroze-gandhi-spoke-up-for-him-8532389/
