Savarkar portrait unveiled in K’taka House, Oppn protests

Congress leaders, including leader of opposition Siddaramaiah and party’s state unit chief DK Shivakumar, held a protest outside the assembly against the unveiling of Savarkar’s portrait, alleging it was a unilateral decision and that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state kept them in the dark.

Bengaluru: A life-size portrait of Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar was on Monday unveiled inside the Karnataka legislative assembly building in Belagavi, drawing criticism from opposition Congress, which termed the move an attempt to divert people’s attention from the problems plaguing the state.

The portrait of VD Savarkar inside the assembly hall at the Suvarna Soudha, in Belagavi . (ANI)

Savarkar’s portrait was unveiled by assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri just before the commencement of the 10-day winter session of the state legislature in Belagavi, which is at the centre of ongoing border dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Congress leaders, including leader of opposition Siddaramaiah and party’s state unit chief DK Shivakumar, held a protest outside the assembly against the unveiling of Savarkar’s portrait, alleging it was a unilateral decision and that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state kept them in the dark.

Stating that there was no connection between Savarkar and Karnataka, Shivakumar accused the BJP government of unveiling the portrait right before the assembly session to divert attention from state’s problems such as corruption and misadministration.

“They don’t want assembly proceedings to take place. They want it disrupted. They have brought this photo because we are going to raise a lot of corruption issues against them. They don’t have any development agenda,” alleged Shivakumar.

The senior Congress leaders staged a demonstration outside Suvarna Vidhana Soudha holding pictures of several national and state icons like Kuvempu, Narayana Guru, Shishunala Sharif, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Babu Jagjivan Ram among others.

Accusing the Basavaraj Bommai government of taking unilateral decisions without any discussions of consultation, Siddaramaiah said it is his party’s demand that portraits of national leaders and social reformers should be installed in the assembly.

“It is not a protest, but our demand to put portraits of all national leaders and social reformers (in the Karnataka Assembly Hall). The speaker has unilaterally taken a decision to put up Savarkar’s portrait in the assembly,” said the former chief minister. “We are not opposed to installing any portraits, but Assembly had to be taken into confidence.”

Stating that it was not even discussed in the Business Advisory Committee, Siddaramaiah added: “The government wants to divert the attention of the people from real issues like law and order.”

Reacting on the protests, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said: “What happens inside the assembly is decided by the speaker. I will talk to our leaders and the opposition as well.”

The state BJP in a series of tweets denounced the opposition party for opposing the move. “In 1970, the Indira Gandhi government had released a stamp of Veer Savarkar. Indira Gandhi herself donated to the Savarkar Memorial Committee for making a documentary on Savarkar. Will the Congress’s sense of history change as the Prime Minister changes? (sic),” said the BJP state unit in a post on its Twitter handle.

Commenting on the issue, Union parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said: “There may be ideological differences but Savarkar is a freedom fighter. Ask Siddaramaiah, whose poster must be put, Dawood Ibrahim’s?”

“Congress is doing appeasement politics. They keep talking about their role in the freedom struggle and their sacrifices but that Congress and this Congress are not the same, what we have now is duplicate Congress,” he claimed.