Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 21: Veer Savarkar in the Congress list of freedom fighters! Strange but true, though it was quickly covered by the Congress as a “printing mistake” but much after it provided fresh ammunition to the BJP to attack the Grand Old Party.
The Congress had to undertake a major firefight for the major gaffe as the Day 14 of the Rahul Gandhi-led “Bharat Jodo Yatra” was winding its way through Kerala. As the rally reached Kerala’s Ernakulum district, the party was faced with a blunder it had not anticipated.
A poster of the Yatra had a photo of VD Savarkar in a line-up with other freedom fighters, though the Congress has never considered Savarkar to be one, claiming that he only apologised to the British instead of fighting them.
The ‘faux pas’ was noticed by Kerala’s Independent MLA PV Anwar, supported by the LDF. Anwar posted a video on social media platform Facebook, saying that the boards kept in Chengamanad as part of the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra has a photo of Savarkar. The workers later covered it with a picture of Mahatma Gandhi, he further wrote.
“When pointed out that VD Savarkar’s photo was on the Bharat Jodo Yatra’s poster in Aluva, the Muslim League’s narrative was that the poster is from Karnataka, where the BJP had installed the poster during the Independence Day celebrations. But the poster is from Kerala, not from Karnataka. The Congress has rectified its mistake by covering Savarkar’s image with that of Mahatma Gandhi’s,” the MLA wrote.
The BJP, which considers Savarkar a hero, was quick to jump into the matter. “Veer Savarkar’s pictures adorn Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Ernakulum (near the airport). Although belated, good realisation for Rahul Gandhi, whose great grandfather Nehru, signed a mercy petition, pleaded the British to allow him to flee from Punjab’s Nabha jail in just 2 weeks,” Amit Malviya, the BJP’s I-T Cell chief, tweeted.
“Rahul ji, no matter how much you try history and the truth comes out Savarkar was Veer! Those who hide are the “kaayars”,” tweeted Shehzad Poonawalla.
The Congress clarified that “It was a printing mistake.” The brief to the printers was to put together a poster with photos of freedom fighters. They went online and made the posters with what was available without cross checking, the party said. Once the mistake was noticed, the local workers tried to cover it with Mahatma Gandhi’s photo, it added.
Going on the offensive, the Congress said the enthusiastic public response to Rahul Gandhi had prompted the BJP leadership to attack him using distorted facts. “BJP is rattled as Bharat Jodo Yatra is a hit that’s why such tweets and attacks. Who is dividing the country one can see through their tweets,” Congress leader Shama Mohamed said.
As Rahul Gandhi winds his way on foot through the southern states, he has come under scathing attack from the BJP, which has disparaged the Bharat Jodo Yatra as “communal”. The saffron party has also accused the Wayanad MP of “appeasement politics” and for rubbing shoulders with a controversial preacher.
