Rahul Gandhi has often been outspoken about Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
There is no doubt that the Congress party, following the line of Pandit Nehru, has been a staunch opponent of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. But Congress could never reject him. Neither Nehru nor Indira nor today’s Rahul Gandhi. Otherwise, what happened when a speaker recited Savarkar’s song during the campaigning for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. Savarkar’s song “Jayostute, Jayostute Shri Mahanmangle Shivashadde Shubhade, Swatantrate Bhagwati Tvamaham Yashoyutan Vande” was recited at a meeting of Mahavikas Aghadi held at Bandra Kurla Complex.
Although Rahul Gandhi was not on stage at the time, he was certainly there. Congress president Mallikarjun Haq, National Communist Party (SP) leader Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray will also address the meeting. They are all aligned with the Congress.
Congress remains in dilemma over Savarkar issue
But those who think Congress is against Savarkar are delusional. Congress has never publicly condemned freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Mahatma Gandhi spoke highly of his book “1857: The First Indian War of Independence”. This was the first book published in 1907, which described the 1857 movement as India’s first freedom struggle. The British ordered that for 50 years after 1857, no one could write anything about the heroes of the movement.
Savarkar then raised the issue for the first time. Not only this, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi also issued a postage stamp after Savarkar’s death. Hiren Mukherjee of the Communist Party of India (CPI) moved a condolence resolution on his death. Rahul Gandhi cannot understand this. Savarkar’s picture was installed in the Central Hall of Parliament only during his tenure in Parliament.
A game to get Muslim votes on your side
Apparently, Rahul Gandhi’s opposition to Savarkar was just a ploy to attract Muslim votes. That is why Rahul Gandhi remained silent when Savarkar’s song was played at the Mahavikas Aghadi conference. But they must answer the question. From Delhi to New York, he was known for his opposition to Savarkar, but in Maharashtra, he did not even speak against Savarkar. The fact is that the Congress had just started turning against Savarkar.
Since it is impossible to oppose Savarkar in Maharashtra, Rahul Gandhi did not say a word against Savarkar even in the last election and he has remained silent in this assembly election. However, he did not forget to call Savarkar a traitor and an unapologetic hero while targeting the BJP.
Rahul Gandhi also files suit
He is facing a lawsuit over his comments about Vinayak Savarkar. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s grandson Satiki Savarkar has filed a contempt case against him after he had spoken about Savarkar taking money from the British during the British Overseas Congress meeting. Even after this, Rahul Gandhi continued to speak against Savarkar. The Congress has been opposing Savarkar, possibly under pressure from the Left and Muslim lobby.
This opposition became more intense in the era of Rahul Gandhi. The idea is that by making such statements in polarized politics, they will sway Muslim votes to their side. But 20% of the Muslim vote is not enough. So, to attract OBCs, they are also talking about caste census.
Savarkar always opposed caste system
This is the mistake Rahul Gandhi made. Because Vinayak Savarkar was the first person to raise the slogan of Hindu faith against caste system. The greatest attack in his Hindutva was on caste. This is why opposing Savarkar in Maharashtra means losing public support. This is why Rahul Gandhi remains silent. Regarding Savarkar, litterateur Prem Kumar Mani, a former member of the Bihar Legislative Council, said there were a lot of comments, counter-comments and debates about Savarkar. One section tried to prove that Savarkar was an enemy of the state and society, while another section argued for considering him as superior to Gandhi. I think both are extreme and no sanity can survive at this point.
“Gandhi was in his place, Savarkar was in his place. Bhagat Singh, Nehru-Ambedkar and Subhash also had their place . All of them contributed and played an important role in many aspects of our national movement. When I look at the struggle for freedom from the perspective of all these coordinations, something different emerges. There was communalism, there was casteism and mullahism, there was illiteracy, there was exploitation of the landlords.
Every leader has his own journey of struggle
Prem Kumar Mani says, “People are struggling with all this on multiple levels. Raja Rammohan Roy, Vivian Derozio, Ishwachandra Vidyasagar, Jotiba Phule, Dayanand, Vivekananda, Ramabai all have their None of them were arrested during the British rule and no one protested against them; then their struggles were meaningless compared to these? Armed opposition by the likes of Rat Begum, Bahadur Shah and Tatiya Tope is unhelpful.
‘Sawarkar must be considered in this light. There’s a different side to his struggles and perspectives. Those who are not familiar with the period of Muslim rule in the Deccan, or who have not studied the struggles and movements against Mughal rule centered on the Jats, Satnamis, Sikhs and Marathas, will not be able to understand the Savar Card.
To understand Savarkar, one has to understand the circumstances.
The famous British writer Rajini Palm Dutt gave a different view of the Indian independence movement at that time in his book “India Today”. During the anti-Bangabang movement in 1905, Dhaka’s landowning Muslims formed the Muslim League. At the Lucknow Conference of 1916, the proposal to allocate seats on the basis of ethnic groups in the Central Assembly was accepted. The Khilafat Movement happened.
After all this, the development of Hindu politics was a matter of course. The British believed that the rebellion of 1857 was a rebellion by the Muslim rulers. As democratic sentiment began to grow in the country, a feeling began to emerge among the Muslim elite that after the British left, the rulers would be Hindus and not them.
This sentiment eventually sowed the seeds for Pakistan. True Muslim rule should exist only in a small part. Every action has a reaction. It was not unusual to raise the idea of ​​a Hindu and a Hindu president during this period. Savarkar represents this sentiment. It is difficult to remove and deny them from the sequence of history. He has now apologized to the British and said messages such as accepting financial help would not diminish his importance.
Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh also remain ignored
Some people have long propagated that Ambedkar never spent a day in jail and was a supporter of the British government. There is nothing wrong with that either. For Ambedkar, independence did not mean the same thing to an upper-caste Hindu or an upper-caste Muslim. He sees and explains independence from a Dalit perspective. Even if it is late, he must accept India.
The same was the case with Bhagat Singh. It was not until much after Independence that we saw Bhagat Singh as a freedom fighter. In 2007, on the written request of his family, Manmohan Singh’s government recognized him as a freedom fighter and installed his statue in the Parliament building. So will it be said that for this he has to wait for the Punjab Prime Minister?
