Rahul Gandhi’s Savarkar jibe irks Shiv Sena but it does not have the gall to walk out of the alliance with Congress

Rahul Gandhi’s classless statement on Veer Savarkar exposed the fault lines within the Maha Vikas Aghadi as the opportunistic alliance have seemingly opposite ideologies. While the BJP slammed Rahul Gandhi for his comments on Savarkar, the so-called champion of Hinduism and a staunch follower of Savarkar’s ideology, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray refused to ask the Gandhi scion to apologise for his remarks on Veer Savarkar. Rahul Gandhi had said, “I am not Rahul Savarkar” when he was asked to apologise for his ‘Rape in India’ remark. 

Congress is notorious for distorting history for their political gains and the party made it a point to change the textbooks which glorify Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi while conveniently ignoring the contributions of Sardar Patel, Bhagat Singh and Veer Savarkar during its stint at the Centre.

The Congress-led Rajasthan government to decided to distort history as it removed ‘Veer’ honorific accorded to Savarkar and the class 12 history textbook in Rajasthan now describes how Vinayak Damodar Savarkar sent the British four mercy petitions when he was imprisoned in Cellular Jail in Andaman. Hence, Rahul Gandhi making derogatory remarks shouldn’t come as a surprise.

What’s surprising is the Shiv Sena’s refusal to ask an apology from Rahul Gandhi as the party has compromised on its ideology for power. Except the motormouth, Sanjay Raut has had the gall to ask Congress to not disrespect Savarkar. Raut tweeted: “We respect Pandit Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, you don’t insult Savarkar,समझने वाले समझ गये है …जय हिंद!!”

It’s funny how the entitled Gandhi scion whose only achievement is having born with the Gandhi surname chose to insult one of India’s foremost freedom fighters. While Rahul is a serial loser who hops on a sabbatical after every defeat, whereas Savarkar was the one who envisioned the idea of complete freedom and liberation from the chains of British slavery. In fact, the unconventional poet/writer was a trendsetter – man of many firsts, such as being the first one to give a detailed description of the 1857 Freedom Struggle, which irked the British into banning it even before its publication. He was also the first political prisoner who dared to escape, unfortunately, to end up being arrested on the French soil, and he was also the first political prisoner in the world who was sentenced to Transportation for Life twice, a feat second to none in the history of the British empire.

In the immediate aftermath of Rahul’s remarks, it was speculated that Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray was unhappy over Rahul’s jibe on Veer Savarkar as the Gandhi scion even refused to apologise. Perhaps Uddhav forgot that he is the Maharashtra CM to cater to the whims and the fancy of 10 Janpath and not to serve the people of Maharashtra. The realisation quickly dawned on Thackeray as he quickly changed his stripes and claimed that Citizenship Amendment Bill was against Veer Savarkar’s views.

It seems that Sonia Gandhi had cracked the whip on Uddhav as he also moved to slam the Centre over CAB and asked what is stopping them from realising Savarkar’s dream of an Akhand Bharat (unified India), conveniently ignoring the fact that the revocation of Article 370 was the first step towards an Akhand Bharat.

The upcoming winter session in Nagpur will see Uddhav and his Sena walk on a tightrope as Fadnavis has publicly demanded that Rahul Gandhi apologise for his remarks and there are indications that the state BJP will move a motion in the House seeking to condemn Gandhi’s remarks. This will put Shiv Sena in a fix as voting for the motion, would essentially mean Congress pulling the plug on the Thackeray government and voting against the motion would split the Sena. The dynasts Uddhav and Rahul have combined to insult the legacy of Veer Savarkar and Uddhav has yet again shown that he is a coward and an incompetent dynast by claiming that he will wait for the Supreme Court’s decision before airing his view on the CAB. If Sena has the gall, they should be stepping out of the alliance right now. But Uddhav is no Balasaheb Thackeray as the former appears to have shifted his allegiance to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi if needed just to stay in power.