Uddhav demands’Bharat Ratna’ for Savarkar

Mumbai: In yet another attempt to revive its Hindutva ideology, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday reiterated his demand of Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, for Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar. He also slammed the Congress and the BJP saying they should stop targeting Savarkar and Jawaharlal Nehru respectively.

“Regarding Veer Savarkar, I want to ask why he should not be given Bharat Ratna. When Devendra Fadnavis was the CM, he had written letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding this demand, but what happened to it? Still, Veer Savarkar is not being given Bharat Ratna. Even today he (Fadnavis) is the CM when his demand is not being considered, then BJP has no right to speak on Veer Savarkar. They should honour Savarkar with Bharat Ratna,” Thackeray said at Nagpur, where the winter session of the Maharashtra Legislature is going on.

When asked about Congress’ criticism of the Hindutva icon, Thackeray said, “I want to tell both Congress and BJP that Congress should stop targeting Savarkar and BJP should stop targeting Nehru. Instead of dwelling on the past, we should focus on building the future. Whatever decisions both leaders made in their time were appropriate for their era. Therefore, Prime Minister Modi should also refrain from repeatedly invoking Nehru's name now.”

Thackeray also claimed that the Centre’s move to introduce a bill on simultaneous polls in the Lok Sabha was an attempt to divert attention from issues plaguing the country. The Shiv Sena (UBT) chief said that the election commissioners should also be elected through polls in order to ensure transparency in elections.

The former Maharashtra Chief Minister’s demand of conferring Savarkar with Bharat Ratna is seen as yet another sign of going back to its core Hindutva agenda after the drubbing the party received in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha polls.

Last week, Thackeray had attacked the BJP-led government at the Centre over the atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh and appealed to protect the minority community in the neighbouring nation. “If PM Modi stopped the Russia-Ukraine war to repatriate Indian students, he should also stop atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh,” he had said mockingly.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) also launched an agitation to ‘protect’ an 80-year-old Hanuman Temple outside Mumbai’s Dadar station that was served a demolition notice by the railways. As a part of it, Uddhav’s MLA son Aaditya Thackeray also performed ‘maha aarti’ at the temple.

Earlier, on December 6, the party left its alliance partners in the INDIA bloc and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra red-faced when Uddhav Thackeray’s close aide and MLC Milind Narvekar posted a photo of the Babri Masjid demolition on social media site X along with “I am proud of those who did it” remarks of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray. The mosque in Ayodhya was brought down on December 6, 1992.

Irked with the move, Samajwadi Party’s Maharashtra chief Abu Azmi had said that his party was walking out of the MVA, which also comprises the Congress and Sharad Pawar-led NCP.