Ranjit Savarkar, the grandson of Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar, said the decision of the Congress government in Karnataka government to remove a chapter on his grandfather “won’t make a difference” and his name was being misused to mobilise Muslim votes.
The Siddaramaiah-led government has approved the revision of Kannada and social science textbooks for Classes VI to X in the state and the cabinet recommended the removal of chapters on personalities such as Savarkar and RSS founder KB Hedgewar.
The decision has drawn sharp criticism from the BJP. In an exclusive interview with News18, following the decision to remove references to Savarkar in Karnataka’s school textbooks, Ranjit said the Congress might believe that by erasing the chapter, it could prevent students from learning about Savarkar.
“The more they try to suppress, there will be more rebound. Every action will have an equal and opposite reaction and that is what is going to happen,” he told News18. Excerpts from an interview:
The Karnataka government has decided to drop chapters on VD Savarkar and KB Hegdewar and revoke the decision of the previous BJP government. Your comments.
This is a purely political move; (former prime minister) Indira Gandhi had a lot of respect for VD Savarkar and even issued a postal stamp in his memory. She also donated Rs 11,000 from her personal account to his ‘smarak’. This move has nothing to do with political ideology or Savarkar, but a way to mobilise Muslim votes. They (Congress) are trying to push away Veer Savarkar and bring in Tipu Sultan. You know the history of Tipu Sultan and the atrocities he has committed. This move to remove Savarkar is to indulge in polarisation and they are using his name to create that divide.
Savarkar’s name was also used during the campaign in the recently concluded assembly elections. How do you see the use of your grandfather’s name as part of an election campaign?
Political parties do not know Savarkar’s ideology of Hindutva. His Hindutva has nothing to do with Hinduism as a religion or how you pray (pooja paddhati). It is about ‘punyabhoomi’… he did not believe in god. Savarkar has been targeted as a man who is communal. In 1945, on behalf of the Hindu Mahasabha, he had presented a moral constitution in which he said everybody should be treated as equals, irrespective of caste, religion, or colour and this was referred to in our constituent assembly. His image and his ideology are being misused by projecting him in the wrong light. This is being done to scare the Muslims.
Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis has also made a statement seeking a reply from Uddhav Thackeray on his stand on Savarkar after the Karnataka government dropped him from the syllabus. How do you respond to this?
Uddhav Thackeray made his stand clear earlier when the Congress mouthpiece… in Maharashtra printed a malicious piece, which I can say was a 100 percent imaginary and defamatory article, and he refused to take action against it. So, Uddhav Thackeray has shown his stand and I don’t expect anything from him.
Savarkar, for the first time, has been included in the Delhi University political science syllabus. But there is also a controversy saying his contribution is being taught before Mahatma Gandhi’s and BR Ambedkar’s.
It is not about Gandhi or Ambedkar being replaced, they have their own place. And Savarkar has his own place. He cannot be replaced as he is also an integral part of history and they all were working at the same time. Let the students get a chance to study the comparative qualities of all three of them as they were contemporaries. You cannot remove Gandhi and keep Savarkar or remove Savarkar and keep only Gandhi. Let students read, study, and understand and let them come to a conclusion on what they thought of Savarkar’s kind of politics as compared to others. In this time and age, all data is available online and people should be encouraged to research and analyse information. Let the truth come out.
A movie on Savarkar called ‘Swatantra Veer Savarkar’ is being made with actor Randeep Hooda playing the lead. The trailer is already out. Has the family been consulted by the makers?
I have heard about it but I don’t know anything about it. They (producers) had written to us seeking permission. They need to show me what the script is because if they are going to be putting or protracting anything wrong about Savarkar, then we will strongly object and it cannot be done. I am hoping they will do a fair representation.
As the grandson of Savarkar, what would you like to tell Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah on their decision regarding dropping Savarkar from the syllabus?
You can remove it from the education curriculum but now all of Savarkar’s literature and information on him is available on the internet, free of charge. There are books on Savarkar and more new books are coming. The more you suppress something, it is going to rebound. It is the law of nature, it’s Newton’s Law. You can’t stop people from studying about him. Earlier it may have been possible, but now with the advent of the internet and social media, everything is accessible and has opened up a lot of avenues. You can’t really suppress anything today.