Devendra Fadnavis and Nitin Gadkari at the Savarkar Gaurav Yatra in Nagpur (Photo: Twitter/@Dev_Fadnavis)
Union Minister Gadkari on Tuesday thanked Rahul Gandhi for giving the BJP the opportunity to get Savarkar’s message to each and every household.
The Savarkar row in Maharashtra continues with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s latest attack against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his critical remarks on Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar.
Union Minister Gadkari on Tuesday thanked Rahul Gandhi for giving the BJP the opportunity to get Savarkar’s message to each and every household.
“We should thank Rahul Gandhi for giving us the opportunity to take the truth and Savarkar to every household. Rahul Gandhi should continue doing this,” Gadkari said while addressing a gathering in Nagpur as part of the “Savarkar Gaurav Yatra”.
Calling for an apology from Rahul Gandhi, Nitin Gadkari claimed that he had not read what his grandmother Indira Gandhi and grandfather Feroze Gandhi said about Savarkar. “It was Savarkar who showed that Hindutva is a way of life. He broke caste barriers,” Gadkari said.
Rahul Gandhi has been at the centre of a fresh showdown over his recent Savarkar comment. Following his disqualification from the Lok Sabha after his conviction in the Modi-surname defamation case of 2019, Rahul Gandhi said he wouldn’t apologise as he is not Savarkar.
‘Golden Spoon’ Jibe
Devendra Fadnavis attacked Rahul while addressing a gathering at the concluding programme of the “Savarkar Gaurav Yatra” in his hometown Nagpur.
Referring to Gandhi, who has attacked Savarkar multiple times over the issue of mercy pleas, the state home minister said some people born in India have no knowledge of its history or contemporary times.
“Someone who has no political future wakes up everyday and abuses Savarkar daily and to answer such people everyone in Maharashtra has come on roads in the form of the Savarkar Gaurav Yatra,” said Fadnavis.
‘He is not even Gandhi’
Fadnavis also reacted to Gandhi’s remarks that he will not apologise (for Modi’s surname comments) as he is not Savarkar. The BJP leader said the disqualified Lok Sabha MP cannot become like the Hindutva icon.
“You are not Savarkar and not even Gandhi. To become Savarkar you need to make sacrifices,” he said.
Fadnavis said the former Congress president cannot stay in prison even for one day, while Savarkar spent years in the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands under harsh conditions.
The deputy CM said people like Gandhi, who are born with a golden spoon, do not know what sacrifices Savarkar made and the untold suffering he underwent.
“Before independence, Britishers troubled us and after independence agents of Britishers trouble us today,” Fadnavis said in an oblique reference to the Congress.
Fadnavis said Gandhi could never understand the late Hindutva icon and added “Savarkar resides in our hearts and you can never finish him”.
(With PTI Inputs)
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