There was a concerted effort to defame Savarkar after Independence: RSS chief Bhagwat

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 12

Praising the Narendra Modi government, Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat on Tuesday said it was only after 2014 that India’s security policy started getting priority in the government’ agenda.

The RSS chief, while speaking at an event to launch a book on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, ‘Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition’ by Uday Mahurkar, also said a major gameplan was carried out after the Independence to “to defame the Sangh Parivar and Veer Savarkar”, which failed.

Describing Savarkar as a true nationalist, the RSS chief said all his predictions are coming true today. Due to lack of information about Savarkar, there was a concerted effort to defame him after Independence and the next target could be Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayanand Saraswati and Maharishi Arvind, he also warned.

Bhagwat said the campaign of defamation will also be launched against the likes of Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayanand Saraswati and Yogi Arvind, because Veer Savarkar was very much influenced by their ideas.

“Savarkar’s Hindutva, Vivekananda’s Hindutva… it has become a fashion to say so. Hindutva is one, which it is from the beginning and will remain till the end. The one who lives in India belongs to India and his security and prestige are related to India’s,” the RSS chief said, again reiterated that ancestors of all those living in India, irrespective of their caste and creed, were the same.

There are many nationalist Muslims who too should be celebrated, he added. All the people living in India are Hindus, Bhagwat said, advising people of all faiths to live together.

Objecting to the use of the word minority, the RSS chief said there is no such thing as minority. “We are all one, we are the inheritors of the same culture, in spite of differing rituals and languages. Everyone has equal rights, and also duties,” he added.

Describing Savarkar as a true nationalist, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said people of a particular ideology has spread “misconceptions” about him- “a great hero of the Indian freedom struggle”.

Rajnath Singh said a lie was spread about Savarkar that he had apologised to the British, whereas the truth was that the petition was filed as a legal right at the behest of Mahatma Gandhi so that he could come out of jail and join the freedom movement. “It is difficult to put down in words everything that Veer Savarkar had done for this country,” Rajnath Singh said, adding: “He was a true nationalist, nothing else.”

According to Uday Mahurkar, the author of the book, Savarkar is the “father of India’s national security” and that his nationalist ideology was “sacrificed at the altar of vote bank politics”.

RSS’ Vijayadashami

Keeping in mind Covid protocols, the RSS has decided not to invite any guest for the annual Vijayadashami address by the Sarsanghchalak for the second consecutive year. However, with the situation being better, as many as 500 swayamsevaks are expected to attend the function which in the past has seen several prominent personalities, including late President Pranab Mukherjee, HCL chief Shiv Nadar and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi.