Hyderabad: Slamming RSS and BJP’s appreciation of Veer Savarkar, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday claimed that by installing Savarkar’s portraIt in Parliament, they were sending out a message that Mahatma Gandhi is not going to remain the Father of the Nation and that Savarkar would take his place.
“What pinches me the most as a parliamentarian is that in the central hall of Parliament, on one side there is a photo of Mahatma Gandhi and right opposite to it, there is a photo of Savarkar, who was mentioned by Justice Jeevan Lal Kapur Commission,” he told mediapersons here.
Savarkar was acquitted due to lack of corroborative evidence during the trial in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, he said.
“But you install a photo opposite Gandhi? What would you like to convey? RSS and BJP are giving a message to the country that soon a moment is going to come when Bapu will not be the Father of Nation and Savarkar will be,” he said.
Asked about RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s reported comments that Savarkar was not an enemy of Muslims and that he wrote ghazals in Urdu, Owaisi claimed that it is a recorded fact that Savarkar was against Urdu.
Urdu was promoted by Hindus and those belonging to other religions, he said.
“Savarkar used to accept fascism and Nazism,” he said.
Owaisi alleged that the RSS leaders’ feel that the country would start accepting even if they try to cover up and tell lies.
He also demanded to know if Bhagwat would refuse the observations of the Justice Kapur Commission of Inquiry in its report that Savarkar was complicit in Mahatma Gandhi’s murder and part of the conspiracy.
Savarkar used to say that only Hindus are citizens of the country, he claimed.
The AIMIM president also hit out at the NDA government at the Centre over the alleged coal crisis in the country.