Sanjay Raut slams Congress on Savarkar’s booklet says, should test there mind

The booklet alleged that Veer Savarkar received money from the British after he was released from Andaman’s Cellular Jail

Mumbai: ShivSena MP Sanjay Raut on Friday targeted Congress over a Seva Dal booklet questioning Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s credentials as a patriot and his reputation for valor.

ShivSena leader Sanjay Raut lashed out at the Congress over a Seva Dal booklet questioning the credentials of Savarkar as a patriot and his reputation for valor.

The Hindi booklet, distributed at a camp of Congress-affiliated Seva Dal in Madhya Pradesh, had also claimed that Savarkar and Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse was in a physical relationship.

“Veer Savarkar was a great man and will remain a great man. A section keeps talking against him. This shows the dirt in their mind,” Sanjay Raut said, responding to the booklet, titled “Veer Savarkar, Kitne ‘Veer’?”. He also said they should test there mind. The booklet alleged that Veer Savarkar received money from the British after he was released from Andaman’s Cellular Jail.

Pointing at Maha Vikas Aghadi government, BJP leader Uma Bharti questioned ShivSena chief and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and asked if he would break the silence and step down.

“He needs to decide between power and respect for Veer Savarkar,” Uma Bharti said.

Last month, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also took a jibe that his name was not “Rahul Savarkar” and hence he would not seek apology for his remark on rape had riled the ShivSena, his party’s new-found ally in Maharashtra.

Congress Seva Dal sparked controversy with a booklet in which it claimed that Savarkar was in a “homosexual relationship” with Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse.

On Thursday the booklet titled ‘Veer Savarkar Kitne Veer? (Veer Savarkar, How Brave?)’ was distributed among volunteers during the inauguration of the Seva Dal national training camp in Bhopal’s Bairagarh.

The booklet claims that Veer Savarkar was in a relationship with Godse and says that he had exhorted men to rape women of minority communities. It also blames RSS and Savarkar for the partition of the nation in 1947.

Meanwhile quoting an instance mentioned in Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’s book ‘Freedom at Midnight’, the booklet claims, “Previously adopted Brahmacharya, there is only one mention of Godse’s physical relationship. Godse had a homosexual relationship with his political mentor Veer Savarkar.”