Sushma stars in Cellular show

The party’s deputy leader in Rajya Sabha, Swaraj — who led the march to the cellular jail — handed over a plaque reconstructed by the BJP, to the Deputy Commissioner for ‘‘safekeeping till a government that respects patriots comes to power’’.

The original plaque — with revolutionary quotations of Savarkar and Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah Zafar — had been removed on the orders of Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar last month.

At Tiranga Park, where the group had assembled, BJP MPs made fiery speeches denouncing the Congress and its ‘‘foreigner’’ president Sonia Gandhi for ‘‘insulting’’ the memory of freedom fighters. ‘‘The fact that over 100 MPs and nearly 50 MLAs have assembled here to protest the removal of Savarkar’s plaque demonstrates our anger and anguish,’’ Swaraj said.

‘‘What is so objectionable about Savarkar’s quote?’’ she asked, reading the plaque: ‘Vande Mataram. We have not taken the oath of patriotism with our eyes closed. We have examined this choice in history’s burning flames. We have consciously and after due thought resolved to burn ourselves in this sacred fire. We have taken a pledge of self-sacrifice’.

‘‘What is it about this revolutionary quotation that has evoked so much hatred towards the plaque? The fact is, the Gandhi-Nehru family wants to take all the credit for India’s freedom struggle. Should all the buildings, roads, hospitals be named after members of the family which has ruled India for two-thirds of its independent years,’’ Swaraj asked.

Directing her ire at Sonia, she added: ‘‘A firangi (foreigner) cannot know what freedom fighters have sacrificed for this country. Only Aiyer is not responsible for this action.’’

Saying the Savarkar issue was not an isolated one, former HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi said: ‘‘The Congress and the Left parties, in a calculated manner, are trying to denigrate, belittle and remove the contribution of freedom fighters, even from textbooks.’’

‘‘Why is the Government hesitating to restore the plaque even though the Prime Minister himself said Savarkar was a great patriot,’’ he asked.

Describing Aiyar as the ‘‘leftover of Left parties being dished out to the Congress’’, former Union minster Yashwant Sinha alleged that the Petroleum Minister had raised money for the Chinese when they invaded India in 1962.

Other prominent BJP leaders who participated in the march were former Union ministers B.C. Khanduri, Satyanarayan Jatiya, Sahib Singh Verma and Ravi Shanker Prasad, party deputy leader in Lok Sabha V.K. Malhotra, former Jharkhand CM Babulal Marandi and former deputy chairperson of Rajya Sabha Najma Heptulla.