NEW DELHI: Congress leader
Abhishek Singhvi on Monday praised Hindutva ideologue
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, whom he referred to as an “accomplished man” who “played a part in the freedom struggle, fought for Dalit rights and went to jail for the country”.
Singhvi’s comments, though they came with the rider that he did not subscribe to Savarkar’s ideology, followed BJP’s
Maharashtra unit proposing that Bharat Ratna be conferred on Savarkar.
Last week, former PM
Manmohan Singh had said Congress was not against Savarkar, but only opposed the Hindutva ideology professed by him. On Monday, Singhvi followed suit and said Savarkar was “imbued by nationalist motives”.
“The strength of Indian thinking has been inclusive. Many strands of the freedom movement have existed — one cannot agree with the jingoism or violent elements of Savarkar’s nationalism, nor with his vicious anti-Gandhism, but one can accept that he was imbued by nationalist motives,” Singhvi tweeted.
Singh and Singhvi’s stand, however, was at variance with the opposition’s criticism of BJP’s demand for Bharat Ratna to Savarkar. Congress had argued that Savarkar, though acquitted, had faced trial in the murder of
Mahatma Gandhi.
On Monday, general secretary of All India Mahila Congress Apsara Reddy said the Modi government was paying lip service to Mahatma Gandhi, ignoring the plight of farmers as well as the victims of crisis-struck Jet Airways and PMC Bank, and hobnobbing, instead, with Bollywood celebrities.