Amid BJP-Shinde heat over Rahul’s Savarkar barbs, Uddhav Thackeray does a tightrope between MVA, Hindutva

Last Saturday, while responding to a reporter’s question if he would apologise for his 2019 Modi surname remark that got him disqualified as the Lok Sabha MP following his conviction by a Surat court for two years in a defamation case, Rahul told a press conference: “My name is not Savarkar. I am a Gandhi. I won’t apologise.”

Rahul’s “my name is not Savarkar” jibe was a reference to the mercy petitions that Savarkar, an icon of the Hindu right-wing, wrote to the British government while imprisoned in the Andamans. Rahul’s comment on Savarkar expectedly drew fire from the BJP.

On Sunday, while addressing a public rally at Malegaon in North Maharashtra, Uddhav said, “Savarkar is our idol. We hold Savarkar in highest esteem. His courage and sacrifice and role in freedom struggle cannot be undermined. We will not tolerate Savarkar’s insult.”

Uddhav was also quick to stress how even after forging alliance with the Congress and NCP to form the MVA government in 2019, he had never compromised with the Sena’s core agenda of Hindutva. “Show me one instance where I have compromised on Hindutva. Show me one incident where we have changed our stand on Hindutva,” he said.

Stating that though his party joined Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in a bid to “save democracy”, Uddhav said the Congress leader should avoid making statements that would create rift between the Sena (UBT) and the grand old party.

During the Maharashtra leg of his Yatra last November, Rahul had read from a mercy petition that Savarkar wrote to the colonial government and said that in the letter the Hindutva ideologue called himself an “obedient servant of the British”.

His comments had drawn flak from the Shinde Sena-BJP dispensation. Even then Uddhav had criticised Rahul, saying “We don’t agree with what Rahul Gandhi said about Veer Savarkar. We respect and love Savarkar. But before questioning us over freedom fighters and Savarkar, you (BJP) should tell us first what was the RSS’s role and contribution in the freedom fight.”

The Savarkar issue has now again brought the ideological differences between the Congress and the Sena (UBT) to the fore, even as Uddhav has continued to do a tightrope walk between his commitment to the MVA’s common battle against the BJP-Shinde Sena and his party’s Hindutva credentials.

Rahul’s disqualification had provided a fresh opportunity to Uddhav to express his solidarity with his alliance partner and step up his attack on the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. He even charged Friday that “Thieves are still free but Rahul Gandhi has been punished. This is a murder of democracy. All government systems are under pressure. This is the beginning of the dictatorship… Now we will have to give direction to the fight against it.”

However, a day after Rahul’s Savarkar remark, the Sena (UBT) chief had to join issue with him from his rally at Malegaon, which has a sizeable Muslim population.

Uddhav’s criticism of Rahul came a day after CM Shinde and senior BJP leader and Deputy CM Devandra Fadnavis, while slamming Rahul for his Savarkar comment, also flayed the former on the issue while questioning his Hindutva credentials.

Rahul’s repeated attacks on Savarkar seem to have caused some discomfort to the NCP too. A senior NCP leader said, “We are not going into the merit of whether Savarkar sought mercy from the British to escape full-term imprisonment or not. But the fact is Savarkar was lodged in Andaman and Nicobal jail. He was subjected to atrocities. His nationalism cannot be questioned.”

The NCP leader also said, “Ideologically, one may differ with his concept of Hindu nation among other issues. But then let us not forget Savarkar did not share cordial equations with the right-wing RSS. The BJP is using Savarkar lately to serve its political interests.”

The Congress has always taken a stand against Savarkar. In 2003, when the then BJP-led NDA government led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took the decision to install Savarkar’s portrait in Parliament’s Central Hall, it set off outrage among the Congress-led Opposition, which wrote to President A P J Abdul Kalam not to unveil the portrait. However, President Kalam went ahead and unveiled Savarkar’s portrait in the Central Hall.

In 2004, the Congress leader and then Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had got Savarkar’s plaque removed at the Port Blair cellular jail in Andaman and Nicobar. Aiyar had objected to the absence of Mahatma Gandhi’s name there, so he got Savarkar’s plaque replaced with with Gandhi. It triggered furore, with the BJP and then undivided Sena lead by Bal Thackeray holding protests against Aiyar and the Congress. At Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, Thackeray had then led the Sena’s “Jode Maro ( beat with footwear)” protest, saying “I have also brought my slippers to hit Aiyar’s effigy.”

The Maharashtra Congress maintained that the party’s stand on Savarkar has been consistent and that Rahul’s comment on the latter was in keeping with the party’s ideology.

State Congress chief Nana Patole said, “It is typical of BJP to twist every development as Hindu versus rest. The central issue is why BJP disqualified Gandhi. The question is about BJP’s dictatorial rule which threatens democracy. It is about their disregard for institutions and Constitution.”

The Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena (UBT) have vowed to contest all the coming elections together, making their stand against the BJP their common agenda. However, if intra-MVA differences over Hindutva are not resolved, the Opposition alliance’s battle against the BJP-Shinde Sena may run into rough weather.

Meanwhile, Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said Monday that he will meet Rahul in Delhi and try to convince him to avoid mentioning Savarkar in his statements as it was a “matter of faith” for his party.