Congress legislators in Karnataka have taken strong exception to the ruling government’s move to install a portrait of VD Savarkar inside the Assembly Hall. The Congress party and its leaders, including former president Rahul Gandhi, have been critical of the BJP eulogising the Hindutva ideologue as a freedom fighter. The ideological differences over Savarkar have often put the Congress and the BJP at loggerheads on several occasions.
On Monday, the issue resurfaced as Congress MLAs staged a protest with Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah writing to the Assembly Speaker to install portraits of personalities like Valmiki, Basavanna, Kanaka Dasa, BR Ambedkar, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel among others.
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Not a protest: Siddaramaiah
“It is not a protest,” Siddaramaiah said on the controversy, adding that the Congress legislators were instead demanding that the portraits of other leaders be installed inside the House.
“it is our demand to put portraits of all national leaders and social reformers (in the Karnataka Assembly Hall). The Speaker has unilaterally taken a decision to put up Veer Savarkar’s portrait in the Assembly,” the former Karnataka CM said.
Savarkar a freedom fighter: BJP
Hitting back at the Congress, the BJP said that the ideological differences that the grand old party may have with Savarkar are understandable, the party should not deny him the respect being accorded to him as a freedom fighter.
“There could be ideological differences but Savarkar is a freedom fighter… Then ask Siddaramaiah, whose poster must be put, of Dawood Ibrahim?” Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said, accusing the Congress of indulging in politics of appeasement.
“They keep talking about their role in the freedom struggle and their sacrifices but that Congress and this Congress (of today) are not the same, what we have now is a duplicate Congress,” the minister added.