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Congress party found itself on the back-foot as it’s Seva Dal brought out a book about Veer Savarkar’s relationship with Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse. Amongst those who slammed the Congress for this were it’s new ally in Maharashtra Shiv Sena and the BJP.
The Sena said the Congress had “dirt” in their mind by questioning Savarkar’s credentials as a patriot and his reputation for valour while the BJP described as abhorrent and perverted the comments by the Seva Dal against the Hindutva ideologue in a Hindi booklet.
The BJP also demanded an apology from the Congress.
The Hindi booklet, distributed at a camp of Congress-affiliated Seva Dal in Madhya Pradesh, had claimed that Veer Savarkar and Nathuram Godse were in a physical relationship.
“Veer Savarkar was a great man and will remain a great man. A section keeps talking against him. This shows the dirt in their mind,” Sena MP Sanjay Raut said, responding to the insinuations in the booklet, titled Veer Savarkar, Kitne ‘Veer’?”
The book also alleged that Savarkar received money from the British after he was released from Andaman’s Cellular Jail.
BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis demanded that Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray ban a booklet.
Fadnavis, a former Maharashtra chief minister, said the Congress had exhibited its “wicked” psyche by circulating such a booklet, which underscored its “intellectual bankruptcy”.
