Bagalkot: The Maharashtra BJP has promised in its 2019 election manifesto that it would urge the Centre to confer Bharat Ratna on the Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar if elected to power. However, there are certain parties and groups who have stepped up efforts to deny Savarkar this honour by reviving the three major charges that have been levelled against him since 2003. 

First and foremost being that Savarkar tendered apologies to the British rulers while being imprisoned in the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands between 1910 and 1920. Second, it was Savarkar and not Mohammed Ali Jinnah who was the progenitor of the two-nation theory that led to the birth of Pakistan and that Muslims and Christians would have been second class citizens in Savarkar’s vision of the Hindu Rashtra. Finally, he was an accused in the murder of Gandhiji and was let off only on a technicality.

The BJP, on its part, is convinced that all these charges are part of the wider and long-term plan of the Congress, Left and the pseudo-secular lobby to defame the Hindutva movement. They feel that based on Savarkar’s true contributions, he deserves the Bharat Ratna especially when persons of much lesser note have received it in the past, including the entire Nehru-Gandhi family — Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. 

Joining the issue, Pejawar Seer Sri Vishwesha Theertha Swamiji yesterday said in Bagalkot that it was not right to twist history and say RSS and Savarkar were responsible for the killing of Mahatma Gandhi. Targeting former Karnataka CM Siddharamaiah for claiming that Savarkar and RSS conspired to kill Gandhiji, he said that Siddharamaiah was doing this just to get political mileage and was indulging in vote bank politics. 

Citing Supreme Court judgement that acquitted Savarkar, the Pejawar Seer said that the highest court of the land must be respected. “India’s freedom movement achieved vigour due to the efforts by Veer Savarkar who inspired people to get on to the streets to take on the British. Savarkar’s revolutionary ideas gave a new dimension to the freedom movement. People like Siddharamaiah are twisting facts to meet their selfish motives,” he added.