Mumbai: Karnataka Health Minister and Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao on Thursday sparked an outrage over his remark that freedom fighter Swatantra Veer Savarkar was a non-vegetarian Brahmin who ate beef.
Gundu Rao’s comment irked Shiv Sena and BJP leaders, who consider Savarkar to be their idol.
“I want to tell the Congress and threaten them that the people of Maharashtra love Savarkar ji very much and if they keep insulting him like this again and again, then the people of Maharashtra will bury the Congress party in the ground, so the Congress party should stop insulting Savarkar,” said Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirupam.
BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh also slammed Gundu Rao, saying that his comments were ‘unfortunate, insulting, and highly condemnable.’
“The party whose leaders never ever suffered ‘kala pani ki saja’ (life imprisonment in Andaman and Nicobar Islands) is insulting the person who was handed down double life imprisonment at the cellular jail,” said Chugh.
“Insulting Veer Savarkar, who was an inspiration to revolutionaries in the country, is akin to spitting on the moon,” he added.
Criticising Congress for its leader’s lowly remarks, BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “William Wedderburn, a British civil servant, was the president of the Indian National Congress when Savarkar was handed down life imprisonment. They were sitting under the feet of the British rulers.”
Savarkar’s grandson Ranjit spoke out against the attempt to ‘defamae’ his grandfather ahead of Assembly elections in Maharashtra.
“This is a strategy of Congress to defame Savarkar time and again, particularly when elections are coming. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi was doing it, and now his leaders are making statements… Congress has shown its real face,” said Ranjit.
Gundu Rao made these remarks on Wednesday during the release of the Kannada version of ‘Gandhi’s Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India’ by journalist Dhirendra K Jha in Bengaluru.
“Savarkar, a ‘Chitpavan Brahmin’, used to eat meat. He was a non-veg eater and he was not against cow slaughter. He was modern in a way,” Gundu Rao had said.
“Some say that he used to eat beef as well. As a Brahmin, he used to eat meat and was openly propagating eating meat. So he had that thinking,” claimed the Congress leader.
Savarkar, a freedom fighter, is considered as a hero by many in Maharashtra.
