Supporting the Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government’s decision to scrap chapters on RSS founder K B Hedgewar and Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar from school textbooks, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar said on Friday that it was a promise made in the Congress’s poll manifesto and therefore accepted by the people.

“The Karnataka Congress had given the promise in its election manifesto of removing Savarkar’s chapter from textbooks. People accepted that as the Congress won the election. Only thing is the government should ensure that social harmony is maintained after removing those chapters,” Pawar said at a press conference in Jalgaon, as reported by The Indian Express.

Acting on its election manifesto promise to roll back the changes made to school textbooks when the BJP was in power, the Karnataka government in a cabinet resolution on Thursday approved the revision of Kannada and Social Science textbooks of classes 6 to 10 in the state for this academic year .

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday came down heavily on former ally, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, for keeping mum on the textbook revision issue in Karnataka.

The saffron party’s jibe at Thackeray comes two months after the Shiv Sena supremo asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to refrain from insulting Savarkar, saying that  he considers Savarkar as his idol.

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“Savarkar suffered unimaginable torture in the Andaman cellular jail for 14 years. We can only read the sufferings. It is a form of sacrifice. We will not tolerate the insult of Savarkar,” Uddhav had said.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader’s statement came after Rahul Gandhi refused to apologise for his speech in London saying he was not Savarkar. 

Thackeray had then warned that there would be cracks in the opposition alliance if Gandhi continues to insult Savarkar. 

Accusing Thackeray of compromising on his ideology just for the sake of being in power, Fadnavis said that one can erase someone’s name from a book, but it can’t be erased from the heart. He asked Thackeray of his reaction now? “Will you accept this insult of Veer Savarkar ji? Or just settle for the chair?”