A portrait of Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the picture gallery of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council sparked a political controversy with Congress MLC Deepak Singh demanding its removal and chairman Ramesh Yadav seeking a report within seven days on Wednesday.
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“Acting on the objection of a member (Singh), I have directed the principal secretary, Legislative Council, to submit a report on the issue within seven days,” Yadav said.
The portrait at the picture gallery was inaugurated by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday.
Objecting to the portrait, Singh said: “It was an insult to the freedom fighters who did not bow before the atrocities of the British. They laid down their lives fighting for the freedom of the country.” The Congress legislator said that the portrait should be removed and placed in the party office of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Hitting out at the opposition, BJP state unit spokesperson Chandramohan said: “The life and struggle of Savarkar is an inspiration to the people across the country. The Congress and SP leaders are indulging in politics to serve their vested political interests. Both the parties indulged in dynasty politics.”
Rajesh Kumar Singh is Assistant Editor, Hindustan Times, at the political bureau in Lucknow. An Alumnus of Ramjas College, Delhi and the University of Delhi, he has covered politics in the Hindi heartland Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for three decades and has written extensively on Dalit and OBC politics. He travelled across Uttar Pradesh to cover the panchayat, assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Along with writing on development issues, governance and public policy has done crime reporting, including Maoist activities in Bihar as well as activities of gangsters in East Uttar Pradesh, Jungle Party gang active on UP- Bihar border, dacoit gangs in Bundelkhand region and Sand Mafia active in various districts of UP. Has done investigations and reporting exposing multi-crore NRHM scam in UP, Nutrition scam, Medicine supply scam, irregularities in the flood management projects, weapon smuggling and human trafficking on Indo- Nepal border. He highlighted the deaths of children due to encephalitis in the districts of East Uttar Pradesh; the central and state government took cognisance of the report to launch schemes to check deaths and improve the facilities in the health centres and hospitals. He also reported on the social issues in East Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand- migration, farming crisis, water crisis, plight of the deprived communities- Musahar, Vantongiyas, Sahariya and Kol communities. He covers state government departments. He also travels to write human-interest stories and in-depth stories from the ground in the Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, and Rohilkhand regions of Uttar Pradesh.
