Mr Aiyar, you cannot tarnish Savarkar

This is with reference to ‘Celebrating Hindu Rashtravad’ by Mani Shankar Aiyar (IE, May 14). I would like to point to the celebrat...

This is with reference to ‘Celebrating Hindu Rashtravad’ by Mani Shankar Aiyar (IE, May 14). I would like to point to the celebrated columnist that Veer Savarkar was a great revolutionary and was dedicated to the cause of the freedom of this motherland. Whatever he or his compatriots did was helpful in securing the independence of this country. The ideology of the revolutionaries was quite different from that of Gandhiji’s non-cooperation movement. The present-day secularists, including Aiyar, emerge from this ideology.

Aiyar by writing that Nathuram Godse met Veer Savarkar twice before coming to Delhi to assassinate Gandhiji only means to convey that whatever Nathuram did was with the approval of Veer Savarkar. In other words, Aiyar wants to convey an argument that Nehru lost in open court.

Aiyar, well informed as he is, has deliberately not mentioned that Veer Savarkar wrote the famous 1857 and proved to the hilt that it was a war of independence. There are many great contributions made by Savarkar to this country, but I will mention one more. He advised Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose that instead of painting the statue of Victoria in Calcutta black and rotting in jail, he should leave the country, reach Japan where Rashbehari Bose was, and form the Azad Hind Fauj with the Indian soldiers captured by Japan.

Story continues below this ad

This is precisely what he did and the results are there for you to see. Winston Churchill had to acknowledge that the Indian forces cannot be relied upon and this hastened the independence of India.

Mr Aiyar, Veer Savarkar stands in the galaxy of great patriots and any dust thrown by motivated people upon him will not tarnish this image.

EXCLUSIVE: EC brings in feature to check misuse of identity to seek voter list deletions

Political Pulse53 min ago

The Election Commission has launched a new 'e-sign' feature on its portal and app to prevent fraud. This comes after allegations of misuse of online voter deletion forms in Karnataka. The feature requires voters to verify their identity using their Aadhaar-linked phone numbers, reducing the possibility of fraud.

View all shorts

Live Blog