Savarkar was not ‘brave’, unfortunate that BJP wants to award him ‘Bharat Ratna’, says Bhupesh Baghel

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel who was in the capital after a whirlwind tour of Uttar Pradesh where he campaigned for Congress in by-elections, thinks that Hindu Mahasabha leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was not “Veer” (brave) at all.

Talking to National Herald, Baghel, who is known as a socialist CM within Congress’ rank and file in Chhattisgarh, questioned Home Minister and BJP president Amit Shah’s rational to push Sarvarkars name for Bharat Ratna, saying, “Savarkar was directly involved in the killing of Mahatma Gandhi and you are calling him a patriot! How can BJP even think and talk about it? This is extremely unfortunate”.

According to Baghel, calling Sarvarkar a “Veer” who filed four mercy petitions before Britishers and then proposing his name for Bharat Ratna is actually aimed at erasing the communal past of the RSS-BJP.

“When entire India was fighting for the freedom under Gandhi’s leadership, Savarkar was writing mercy petitions from Cellular jail,” asserted Baghel adding that Savarkar and Hindu Mahasabha also, apart from Muslim League, believed on the “two-nation theory” which eventually led to the division of the nation and assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

He held that Hindu Mahasabha, RSS and Savarkar were responsible for the division of the country.

It is worth mentioning here that a month after arriving in the Cellular Jail, Savarkar submitted his first mercy petition on 30 August 1911. However, merely four days after the submission, his petition was rejected on 3 September 1911.