Saffron clan upset with Dinesh Gundu Rao’s comments describing them as ‘unfortunate, insulting, and highly condemnable’
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – In comments that have riled the saffron clan, Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao has claimed that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue and Hindutva proponent Vinayak Damodar Savarkar ate meat and was not against cow slaughter. “Savarkar, a ‘Chitpavan Brahmin’, used to eat meat. He was a non-veg eater and he was not against cow slaughter. He was modern in a way,” the minister said at an event on Wednesday.
“Some say that he used to eat beef as well. As a Brahmin, he used to eat meat and was openly propagating eating meat. So, he had that thinking,” the minister claimed, according to a PTI report on Thursday.
Rao added that Mahatma Gandhi was a vegetarian and had a firm faith in Hinduism “but his actions were different. He was a democratic person.”
Rao made the comments in Bengaluru at the release of the Kannada version of Gandhi’s Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India by journalist Dhirendra K. Jha.
A political storm erupted after Rao’s remarks. Both the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) condemned the remarks, calling them an insult to the freedom fighter.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirupam strongly condemned Rao’s statement, warning the Congress party against repeatedly maligning Savarkar, revered by many in Maharashtra for his role in India’s freedom struggle, media reports said.
“Once again, the Congress party has made a very low-level comment against Swatantra Veer Savarkar. The statement made by the Karnataka Health Minister is completely condemnable; it is an insult to him,” Nirupam said in a video statement.
BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh criticised the Congress for targeting Savarkar, stating that the party’s leaders never endured the hardships Savarkar faced during his imprisonment by the British.
“The party whose none of the leaders ever suffered ‘kala pani ki saja’ (life imprisonment in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands) is insulting the person who was handed down double life imprisonment at the cellular jail,” media reports quoted Chugh as saying.
Chugh described Rao’s comments as “unfortunate, insulting, and highly condemnable.”
“Insulting Veer Savarkar, who was an inspiration to revolutionaries in the country, is akin to spitting on the moon,” Chugh added.
BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi challenged the Congress to name any of its leaders who had faced the same harsh punishment as Savarkar during British rule. “William Wedderburn, a British civil servant, was the president of the Indian National Congress when Savarkar was handed down life imprisonment. They were sitting under the feet of the British rulers,” Trivedi charged.
