Denigrating Savarkar is to insult patriotism
Author: Shyam Khosla
Publication: Rajasthan Patrika
Date: February 26, 2003
Uncalled
for and unnecessary controversy over the unveiling of Veer Vinayak Damodar
Savarkar's portrait in the Central Hall of Parliament by President A.P.J. Abdul
Kalam last week has deeply hurt all patriotic Indians. It is an ungrateful
nation that fails to remember its heroes. It is not a case of not honouring our
freedom fighters but worse. Opposition parties and a section of the leftist
media are denigrating the great freedom fighter. Cooked up allegations that have
been exposed, time and again, as half-truths and blatant lies have been fished
out by the these elements to malign the great patriot who underwent grave
hardships and is a source of inspiration to generations of Indians. The critics
launched a media campaign to dissuade the President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam from
unveiling Savarkar's portrait in the Central Hall of Parliament. Opposition
leaders wrote letters to the President informing him of their decision to
abstain from the ceremony and requesting him to reconsider his decision to
associate himself with the ceremony that, one of them alleged, aimed at
"re-inventing Savarkar as a national hero".
Things
might have taken an ugly turn if a leftist like K.R. Naryanan was in the
Rashtrapati Bhavan. Only three years ago, Narayanan sat over the Prime
Minister's proposal to posthumously award Bharat Ratna to Veer Savarkar. In an
obvious bid to avoid yet another stand off with the Head of the State bent upon
embarrassing the NDA Government on every conceivable occasion, the Prime
Minister kept the dispute under wraps and let the matter rest. It is a tribute
to the vision and nationalistic fervour of President Kalam that he refused to be
influenced by the motivated campaign spearheaded by the Communists and their
friends in the media. He insisted on going to the Central Hall to perform one of
his sacred duties. In addition to top BJP leaders, Vice President Bhairon Singh
Shekhawat, former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman
Najma Heptulla were among the dignitaries present on the occasion. Conspicuous
by their absence were the leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, and Deputy
Speaker of Lok Sabha, P.M. Sayeed. They owe an explanation to the nation for
showing disrespect to the great patriot.
Opposition
parties' backtracking and launching an attack on Savarkar is reprehensible. CPM
leader Somnath Chatterjee, Congress leaders Shivraj Patil and Pranab Mukherjee
were present in the meeting of the parliamentary committee that took the
decision to install a portrait of Savarkar in the Central Hall. The decision was
by consensus. No one raised any objection to the proposal. Somnath Chatterjee
did ask whether there was any room left for another portrait in the Central Hall
to which the Speaker's response was that there was a niche near the entrance.
CPM leader did not question the core issue - honouring Savarkar. As an
afterthought, the Communist parties and the Congress chose to carry on a
campaign of calumny against the great patriot. A political commentator writing
in a leading English-language daily says the move to honour Savarkar is an
attempt to "whitewash" his role role in the conspiracy behind the
Mahatama's assassination. The gentleman is dishing out half-truths. The
prosecution had no evidence against Savarkar barring approver Digamber Bagde's
statement that he heard Savarkar wishing Godse all success in his mission. The
court did not believe him. While all other accused were punished the court
honourably acquitted Savarkar of the conspiracy charge. The prosecution did not
challenge the special court's decision in the high court. The Government of the
day thought its purpose in implicating the Hindu Maha Sabha leader in the case
had been served. How right it was. The mud slinging continues even after the
great patriot is dead.
Savarkar's
daring escape from the ship in which he was being brought to India as a prisoner
is a saga of India's freedom struggle. Congress MPs, Violet and Joachim Alva
wrote to Savarkar on February 5, 1966, "We humbly salute your unforgettable
daring achievement - swimming the ocean and regaining freedom - will be long
cherished in the pages of freedom struggle". Is Sonia Gandhi aware that her
mother in law had in 1980 written a letter on the occasion of the great
patriot's birth anniversary saying, "Veer Savarkar's daring defiance of the
British Government has its own important place in the annals of our freedom
movement". The great revolutionary doesn't need a certificate of patriotism
from Sonia Gandhi who fled to Italy during the Bangladesh war and didn't apply
for Indian citizenship for years after she married Rajiv Gandhi and resided in
the Prime Minister's house.
Much is
being made of Veer Savarkar's mercy petition to the British Government in 1913
during his incarceration in the Andaman Islands. Bipin Chandra and his group of
"eminent" historians, who have raised the issue time and again, may
please note that Savarkar petitioned the British not once but eight times
between 1911 and 1920 to secure his release from jail. He was no satyagrahi who
would not mind spending his entire life in jail waiting for British rulers'
change of heart. Revolutionary-turned-Satyagrahi Bhagat Singh had decided to
court arrest to propagate his vision. There is no point in comparing the two.
Savarkar was a revolutionary and wanted to get out of jail by hook or crook to
join the freedom movement. The British rulers knew him better than our
"eminent historians". Declassified documents placed in the National
Archives show what the British thought of Savarkar and his petition. The British
Home Secretary Macpherson's note on Savarkar's petition is revealing. He wrote
thus, "It will be dangerous for the British Empire to release Savarkar. His
pleas are a ruse to get out of the jail. Once out, he will organise an
underground movement against the British. I, therefore, reject the petition on
the ground that it will be a danger to public safety". Our
"eminent" historians know that tactics do play a role in a freedom
struggle. They are not against Savarkar per se but against his philosophy of
Hindutava. They are denigrating Savarkar today, tomorrow they may do the same to
Shivaji - another icon of Hindutava - who sought mercy from the enemy whenever
pushed to a corner but fought back and carried on his campaign for freedom once
he was out of the enemy's claws.
It will
not be out of place to recall the role of the Communists during the freedom
struggle. The CPI, as in well known, supported the colonial rulers' war effort
after Germany attacked Soviet Union - the fatherland of all Communists. File No.
7/15/42-Pol (I) is available in the National Archives. It contains a
confidential memorandum running into more than 100 pages submitted by CPI
Secretary P.C. Joshi to the British Government narrating the role the party
played in exposing the "fifth columnists". And who were the fifth
columnists, CPI exposed? Senior leaders of the Congress Socialist Party and the
Forward block, including Ram Manohar Lohia, Jai Prakash Narain and Achhut
Patwardhan. And they have the cheeks to question Savarkar's patriotism!
|
