The BJP government in Karnataka has stirred up a hornet’s nest with the unveiling of controversial Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar’s portrait in the Assembly chamber at Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi, the epicentre of the border row between the state and Maharashtra.
Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai unveiled Savarkar’s portrait next to that of national icons like Swami Vivekananda, Subash Chandra Bose, BR Ambedkar, Basaveshwara, Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, on the first day of the 10-day Winter Session of the state legislature in the north Karnataka border district of Belagavi.
The BJP has projected the gesture as an act of nationalism, it drew angry protests from the protests. The Congress, while not too vociferous in its objection keeping in mind Karnataka elections next year, has demanded that portraits of Maharishi Valmiki, Kanakadasa, Shishiunala Sharifa, Babu Jagjeevan Ram and Kuvempu be added as well. A letter to the effect was written by Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah to Speaker Kageri.
The latest flashpoint also comes in the backdrop of Congress state chief DK Shivakumar’s comments on the Mangaluru blasts and the BJP dubbing it as the Opposition’s “pro-terrorist” stand.
BJP leaders say the move had been in the works as part of the party’s state-wide campaign to “raise awareness about the contributions” of Veer Savarkar among the youth. Savarkar has special prominence in Belagavi where he was kept under preventive detention at the Hindalga Jail in 1950 in an attempt to stop him from protesting the arrival of then Pakistan prime minister Liaqat Ali Khan in New Delhi.
The politics over Savarkar’s portrait in Assembly chambers is not the first the first time the Hindutva ideologue has been the subject of controversy in Karnataka.
Savarkar on Flex in Shivamogga
On Independence Day this year, a row erupted between two groups in Shivamogga over erecting a poster of Veer Savarkar at the Ameer Ahmed circle in the heart of the city. The situation turned tense as the opposing group wanted to put up a poster of 18th century Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan at the same spot. The clashes led to a man being stabbed. After resorting to mild lathicharge, district officials hoisted the Indian flag at the location.
BJP and Congress leaders had engaged in a war of words over the flex row, with Siddaramaiah commenting that it was the BJP which was responsible for the violence. “The BJP has the habit of pinching the baby and acting as if it was pacifying it when it cried. What was the need to install a flex of Savarkar in a Muslim-dominated area or even object to a flex of Tipu Sultan,” he questioned.
The BJP, on the other hand, called it the Congress’s way of communalising every event and tying to support a ruler who was “anti-Hindu” and “anti-national”.
A day later, a photo of Savarkar had surfaced on the premises of the Majestic Metro station along with that of Chandrashekhar Azad and Udham Singh.
Savarkar on a Bulbul
In August this year, a Class 8 Kannada textbook raised eyebrows and sparked a meme-fest with a passage which claimed that Savarkar used to fly out of a locked room on the back of a bulbul bird. The textbook creator called the passage an act of “beautified prose” to illustrate the time Savarkar spent in solitary confinement at the Cellular Jail in Andaman from 1911 to 1924. Educationists and historians, however, called it “pure distortion”. The controversial chapter, Kalavannu Geddavaru, was written by Kannada writer KT Gatti and had replaced an earlier chapter called Blood Group, which was written by Vijayamala Ranganath.
Savarkar on a Flyover
Despite opposition in 2020, then Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa scheduled the inauguration of a 400-metre flyover named after the RSS ideologue. The Congress and JD(S) held protests against the inauguration of the Rs 34 crore flyover in Bengaluru’s Yelahanka on May 28, Savarkar’s birth anniversary.
The flyover was meant to link Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan Road and Yelahanka New Town with the Vidyaranyapura area in north Bengaluru. However, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) called off the ceremony at the last minute citing the Covid-19 lockdown.
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