Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday hit out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for “defaming” late Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, demanding action against the former Lok Sabha member. Speaking in state assembly, which witnessed pandemonium on Friday over ruling party legislators hitting Rahul Gandhi’s poster with chappals – they were protesting against Gandhi’s four-month remarks on Savarkar – Shinde said the Congress leader defamed a man “who is not Maharashtra’s deity but is an idol for the whole country.” (Also Read | On Rahul Gandhi row, Prashant Kishor recalls Vajpayee’s words: ‘chhote mann se…’)
“Any criticism of Rahul Gandhi will be lesser for his this deed,” he added.
In November last year, Gandhi, during his Maharashtra leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, said that Savarkar would write mercy petitions to be freed from the Andaman cellular jail and also accepted a pension from the British. He also claimed that Savarkar had helped the British government during the freedom struggle.
On Saturday, Gandhi again took a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological fountainhead RSS when asked could have escaped the conviction and prison sentence had he apologised for his remarks.
“My name in not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi. Gandhis don’t apologise to anyone,” the ex-Wayanad MP told reporters at a press briefing in Congress headquarters in New Delhi.
A lower court in Surat convicted Gandhi for a 2019 speech in which he asked, “Why do all thieves have Modi as their surname?” Gandhi had referred to three three well-known and unrelated Modis — fugitive Indian diamond tycoon Nirav Modi; Lalit Modi, a cricket executive banned from the Indian Premier League (IPL); and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The court convicted him under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which provides for imprisonment of up to two years, and later released him on bail. The court also suspended the sentence for 30 days on Gandhi’s plea to allow him appeal against the ruling.
Replying to a debate on the Opposition sponsored “Last Week” resolution in the Legislative Assembly, the chief minister Gandhi has insulted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the OBC community and Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar and should be “punished”.
“Rahul Gandhi has been convicted and stands automatically disqualified as a member of Lok Sabha. But he continues to insult V D Savarkar by saying that he is not Savarkar to apologise. Who does he think he is? He must be punished,” Shinde said in assembly.
Stepping up his attack against Rahul Gandhi, Shinde alleged the former Congress chief has not only criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi but has defamed the entire OBC community.
“He is continuing to speak in the same tone and I want to tell him that if he continues to do so, it will be difficult for him to walk on the road,” he warned.
