Now Rahul Gandhi says Savarkar wrote ‘mercy pleas’ to the British: Explained why the controversy keeps erupting
Now Rahul Gandhi says Savarkar wrote ‘mercy pleas’ to the British: Explained why the controversy keeps erupting
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is in trouble yet again over his remark on Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Sticking to his criticism, Gandhi said that the freedom fighter “wrote mercy petitions to the British and accepted pension”, adding that he did so because of fear.
On Thursday, Gandhi accused Savarkar of helping the British and claimed to have evidence to support his remarks.
However, this is not the first time controversy has erupted over Savarkar’s letters. We take a look at what are Rahul’s fresh claims and what history says.
What did Rahul Gandhi say?
“See this. This is the most important document for me. This is the document that comprises Savarkar’s letter to [the] British in which he has stated ‘I beg to remain, sir, your most obedient servant, VD Savarkar,” the Congress leader alleged on Thursday at a press conference in Maharashtra’s Aloka, as he brandished a letter, which he claimed is written by Savarkar.
Translating the English lines to Hindi, Gandhi said, “Sir, main aapka naukar rehna chaahta hoon… This is not written by me… but Savarkarji. Let everyone read this document.”
“I am very clear that he helped the British,” he added.
सावरकर जी ने अंग्रेजों की मदद की। उन्होंने अंग्रेजों को चिट्ठी लिखकर कहा – सर, मैं आपका नौकर रहना चाहता हूं।
– श्री @rahulgandhi pic.twitter.com/1sKszyDXR0
— Congress (@INCIndia) November 17, 2022
What ‘mercy’ petitions is Rahul talking about?
Savarkar, who was arrested for his alleged links to the assassination of AMT Jackson, a British district magistrate of Nashik, was lodged in the Cellular Jail, a colonial prison in the Andaman Islands, infamously called “kaala paani”. His elder brother Ganesh was also in the same prison.
The two spent 10 years in jail between 1911 and 1920 and during this time Savarkar reportedly wrote to the British at least seven times.
Critics of Savarkar often bring up these letters and mock him for allegedly apologising to the British. However, his supporters claim that he did not write any such petitions and even if he did, he did not seek clemency.
What do historians and experts say?
“Both the allegations are untrue. Savarkar wrote petitions for clemency himself and never denied writing them,” Vaibhav Purandare, author of Savarkar: The True Story of the Father of Hindutva, told the BBC in 2019.
According to Savarkar’s biographers, he wrote the petitions because of the poor living conditions in prison, the BBC report says.
However, author Vikram Sampath, who wrote a two-part biography of Savarkar titled, Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883-1924 and A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966, told India Today during a debate in October 2021 that Savarkar wrote petitions to the British for better facilities in prison and early release not “mercy” petitions.
“All political prisoners were given this opportunity to file these petitions. Along with Savarkar, many others like Barindra Kumar Ghosh and Sachindra Nath Sanyal filed these petitions. Don’t call them mercy petitions. It’s a petition. When today you file a bail application, you’re asking the government to release you,” he said.
What has been the BJP’s take?
In October last year, the debate about “mercy” petitions erupted after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that it was Mahatma Gandhi who asked Savarkar to write a mercy plea before the British.
Talking at the launch of a book on Savarkar, Singh said, “A lot of falsehood was spread against Savarkar. It was repeatedly said that he filed multiple mercy petitions before the British government. The truth is he did not file these petitions for his release.”
“It was on Gandhi’s suggestion that he [Savarkar] filed a mercy petition. And Mahatma Gandhi had appealed that Savarkar ji should be released. He had said the way we are running movement for freedom peacefully, so would Savarkar,” he added.
Did Mahatma Gandhi intervene?
Gandhi and Savarkar were ideologically different. According to Sampath, it was Savarkar’s younger brother who wrote to Gandhi in 1920 asking his advice for the release of his elder sibling. Gandhi suggested that he frame a “brief petition” bringing out the fact that “the offence committed by your brother was purely political”, reports BBC.
Gandhi’s “intervention” came after Savarkar had begun writing to the British, the report says.
According to Savarkar’s biographers, writing the pleas did not amount to “fear” as critics including Rahul Gandhi have claimed. “By writing these petitions, Savarkar was availing of his rights as a political prisoner at that time. In my opinion, the petitions do not make him less of a revolutionary or an apologist for British rule,” Purandare told BBC last October.
What are the reactions to RaGa’s latest remarks?
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, who is an ally of the Congress in Maharashtra, said that he respected Savarkar and did not support Gandhi’s comments. “We don’t agree with what Rahul Gandhi has said. We respect Veer Savarkar,” Thackeray said.
However, he said the Sena supported Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra for the sake of freedom in the country.
Meanwhile, Savarkar’s grandson Ranjit Savarkar and Shiv Sena MP Rahul Shewale have filed an FIR against the Congress leader.
I've come here to file a complaint against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for insulting Veer Savarkar in a public meeting in Maharashtra. Rahul Gandhi said, Veer Savarkar took pension & worked for Britishers & also he worked against the country: Ranjit Savarkar,Veer Savarkar's grandson pic.twitter.com/Y5mdH5z48q
— ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2022
Ranjit Savarkar hinted that Rahul Gandhi should be arrested as this is not the first time he has insulted Savarkar. “In the past too, they [the Congress] have insulted Savarkar, so we have filed a complaint against Rahul Gandhi at the Shivaji Park police station”.
“A woman had made comments against Sharad Pawar and she was kept in jail for a month. Savarkar is a bigger leader than Pawar and hence strict action should be taken against Congress leaders,” he said, according to India Today.
Rahul and his mother Sonia Gandhi were accused of defaming Savarkar. A Mumbai court had asked the police to file an inquiry into a complaint by Ranjit which said that the Gandhis called Savarkar a “traitor” in 2016.
With inputs from agencies
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