'Savarkar flew on wings of a bird': K'taka govt draws flak over school textbook

According to the textbook Hindutva idealogue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar would fly out of prison on the wings of a bird

Karnataka’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has drawn flak over a claim in a Kannada school textbook that Hindutva idealogue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar would fly out of prison on the wings of a bird.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. (Hindustan Times)

“The misinformation & distortion of historical facts that is playing out in the regional channels in Karnataka to make #Savarkar look like a hero is absolutely absurd. Anything for TRPs?" tweeted Congress lawmaker Priyank Kharge.

Eminent writers, literary figures, and activists have accused the state government of trying to “saffronise” school textbooks by removing contributions of writers from Dalit and backward classes and replacing them with those by Brahmins and ideologues of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the BJP.

“There was not even a keyhole in the room where Savarkar was imprisoned. But Bulbul from somewhere would visit the room on whose wings Savarkar would sit and fly out and visit the motherland every day,” says the Kannada textbook.