Team News Riveting
Mumbai, November 17
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s comment on freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar has split the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra as former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray contested the view.
The Congress and the Shiv Sena are part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra along with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday continued to target Savarkar and charged that he helped the British rulers. Gandhi said he wrote a mercy petition to them out of fear.
He also dared the Maharashtra government led by Shiv Sena’s breakaway fraction and Shiv Sena to stop the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, which is currently passing through the state. Addressing a press conference at Wadegaon in Akola district, Gandhi showed documents dating back to 1920 from the government records to media persons, claiming that they contained a letter written by Savarkar to the British.
“I will read the last line, which says ‘I beg to remain your most obedient servant’ and is signed V D Savarkar, which shows he helped the British,” Gandhi said.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who heads a faction of the Shiv Sena, on Thursday said his party has immense respect for Savarkar and he does not approve of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on the freedom fighter.
Talking to reporters here, Thackeray also grilled the BJP-led government at the Centre and asked why it had not conferred the Bharat Ratna on Savarkar. “We do not approve of Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on Savarkar. We have immense respect and faith for Swatyantra Veer Savarkar and it cannot be erased,” he said.
His son and former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray had participated in the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra last week.
