New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi has not targeted the Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar but only highlighted a “historical fact,” said Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday. Rahul Gandhi showed a document to journalists at a press conference at Wadegason in Akola district of Maharashtra on Thursday. The document says that Savarkar had sought an apology from the British Government; and that has kicked up a row across the country.
Ramesh defended Rahul Gandhi’s statement at a press conference in Shegaon in Buldhana district of Maharashtra where the Bharat Jodo Yatra entered on Friday. He said that although the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction does not support Rahul Gandhi’s view on Savarkar, it would not have any impact on the Congress’s alliance with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Reacting to the statement, former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said that he did not agree with the Congress leader’s statements, as Savarkar was a freedom fighter.
Ramesh said Rahul Gandhi had referred to Savarkar only in the context of how Birsa Munda did not compromise with the British government; whereas Savarkar signed a mercy petition. “This is a fact,” Ramesh said, adding that Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, one of the greatest Indians, was sentenced to six years imprisonment in Mandalay from 1908 to 1914, but he never signed a mercy petition.
Ramesh said that his party did not want to get into a debate over historical personalities, but the issues need to be discussed on the grounds of facts and figures.
The Congress and the Thackeray-led Sena may have some differences over Savarkar, but it will have no impact on the party’s ties with the MVA, he said. None can deny the historical facts: Savarkar propagated the two-nation theory, the RSS opposed the Quit India Movement, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee supported the Bengal partition; and the Jan Sangh joined hands with the Muslim League to form a government.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra was not aimed at discussing history, but the present-day situation and future by lighting the current problems like economic disparity, political dictatorship and polarisation.
