The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday took on former ally Shiv Sena (UBT) for maintaining silence over the Congress-led Karnataka government’s move of removing RSS founder KB Hedgewar and Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar from the school textbooks and asked former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to clarify his stand on the matter.
Describing the Karnataka government’s move as ‘minority appeasement’, Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis has sought Thackeray’s opinion of the move and asked if has made a ‘compromise’ on his ideology for power.
While Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) is a partner in the Maharashtra opposition bloc of Maha Vikas Aghadi, which also comprises the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), former ally BJP has often accused him of veering away from the Hindutva ideology.
Talking to reporters, Fadnavis said the revision in school textbooks in Karnataka was expected after the Congress returned to power in the southern state.
“The Congress can remove Savarkar and Hedgewar from textbooks but not from the hearts and minds of people. In Maharashtra, the Opposition wants to replicate the Karnataka model. I want to ask Uddhav Thackeray what is his stand on this issue,” he asked.
It is clear that Thackeray has compromised on his ideology for the sake of power, Fadnavis said.
The BJP’s attack on Thackeray on his ideology came two months after the Shiv Sena leader had cautioned senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi about making direct attacks on Savarkar. Thackeray had said Savarkar was akin to God for Shiv Sena and any insult to him will not be acceptable to his party. He had also warned of “cracks” in the opposition alliance if Savarkar was demeaned.
Speaking to reporters in Nagpur, Fadnavis’s BJP colleague and BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule also took a swipe at Shiv sena and said Thackeray should clear his stand on the textbook issue as well as the Karnataka government’s decision to repeal the anti-conversion-law, brought in by the previous government.
Bawankule also blamed Rahul Gandhi for the move and said, “It is Rahul Gandhi who asked the Karnataka government to remove the chapters on Veer Savarkar and withdraw the anti-conversion law. This is what happens in Karnataka if you vote for Congress.”
Savarkar’s Grandson on Karnataka Govt’s Decision
The decision of the Congress government in Karnataka to drop a chapter on Savarkar from school textbooks will have a reverse effect, said his grandson Ranjit Savarkar on Friday.
Talking to PTI on the sidelines of an event in Goa, Ranjit Savarkar said the Congress may think that by deleting the chapter they might deprive students of the opportunity to learn about Savarkar but students are very sharp.
“A lot of material on Savarkar is available on social media. The Savarkar Smarak has published his literature on their website. We are publishing them even in Kannada,” he said.
Ranjit Savarkar said it won’t make any difference if the chapter is deleted.
“In fact, I will say that if you suppress more, it will rebound more. That is a natural reaction. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction,” he said.
Karnataka Govt’s Move
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah-led government in Karnataka on Thursday approved the revision of Kannada and Social Science textbooks of Classes 6 to 10 in the state for this academic year by removing the chapters on Hedgewar and Savarkar among others.
Apart from dropping chapters on Savarkar and Hedgewar, the Karnataka government also plans to include lessons on social reformer and educator Savitribai Phule, Jawaharlal Nehru’s letters to Indira Gandhi and poetry on Dr B R Ambedkar in the textbooks.
(With PTI Inputs)
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