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Uddhav Thackeray seeks Bharat Ratna for Veer Savarkar
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday sought the country’s highest civilian award – Bharat Ratna – for Hindutva poster boy Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, better
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday sought the country’s highest civilian award – Bharat Ratna – for Hindutva poster boy Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, better known as Veer Savarkar. Thackeray also said Pakistan would not have been created, if Savarkar had become India’s first prime minister.
The Sena chief was speaking at the launch of a biography of the Hindu Mahasabha leader titled ‘Savarkar: Echoes From A Forgotten Past’ by Vikram Sampath on Tuesday. “Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was known as the Iron Man of India, and it is said that if he was the prime minister, the issue of Kashmir wouldn’t have come up. If Savarkar was the prime minister, Pakistan wouldn’t have come into existence,” Thackeray said.
“Savarkar must be awarded the Bharat Ratna. We don’t deny the work done by [Mahatma] Gandhi and [Prime Minister Jawaharlal] Nehru, but the country saw more than two families being born on the political scene,” Thackeray said.
Political expert and commentator Prakash Bal refuted Thackeray’s claims on Savarkar. “Savarkar believed that Hindus and Muslims are separate entities and that India should be a Hindu state. Savarkar’s thinking was based on European homogenous society. Hindu religion itself has diversity, he never took it into consideration,” Bal said.
