PM pays tributes to Savarkar on birth anniversary

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday paid tributes to freedom fighter and Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar on his birth  anniversary, saying he motivated several people to join the freedom struggle.

“On his Jayanti, I bow to the courageous Veer Savarkar. We remember him for his bravery, motivating several others to join the freedom struggle and emphasis on social reform,” the prime minister wrote on Twitter.

He also shared a clip of his May, 2018 “Mann ki Baat” radio programme in which he referred to Savarkar.

“It is indeed sad that we kept on calling the events of 1857 only as a rebellion or a soldiers’ mutiny for a very long time … It was Veer Savarkar who boldly expostulated by writing that whatever happened in 1857 was not a revolt but was indeed the First War of Independence,” he had said.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was born in 1883.