Thread by @akashsingla15

@Payal_Rohatgi 1.The Congress,Rahul Gandhi and others sickulars have repeatedly insulted Swatantryaveer Savarkar (‘Hero of Independence’ Savarkar), and called him a ‘traitor’ for his ‘mercy petitions’ to the British while he was in jail in the Andamans from 1911 to 1921.

@Payal_Rohatgi 2.Those petitions were a ‘strategic letter of ploy’ to get out of jail, for which Savarkar should be praised. Congress has a history of harassing Savarkar since 1910 when Nehru refused to donate for Savarkar, according to an article by Shreerang Godbole.

@Payal_Rohatgi 3. Savarkar was a disciple of Shivaji. In 1666 in Agra in Aurangzeb’s captivity, Shivaji wrote such a letter to Aurangzeb to secure his release. Shivaji made many promises in that letter to Aurangzeb. But when he escaped these promises evaporated into thin air.

@Payal_Rohatgi 4. He didn't believed in Satyagraha.He thought it correct to give the undertaking to secure his release, just like Shivaji. He talked of these letters in his book “My Transporation” (Majhi Janmathepin Marathi) which is mentioned in Samagra Savarkar WangmayaVol 1, pp 448/620, 690.

@Payal_Rohatgi 5. Savarkar wrote what talks he had with Sir Reginald Craddock in 1913, with members of Jail Commission, with the Governor about his release from Jail and what restrictions he would accept for his release from the Jail.

@Payal_Rohatgi 6. Others like A G Noorani have tried to hold him guilty in the murder of Gandhi despite the fact that he was acquitted ‘honourably and without blemish’ on 10 Feb 1949 and the Nehru Government dared not appeal against the acquittal.

@Payal_Rohatgi 7. Jumped into the sea from a ship from where he was being transported by the British at Marseilles in 1910 and swam to France braving bullets of British Police, fighting death all along. Such a patriot, was called a ‘staunch supporter of British colonialism’ by The Wire!

@Payal_Rohatgi 8. On December 5, 2002, when the then Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi expressed the wish to put up a portrait of him in the Central Hall of Parliament, Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Shivraj Patil said, “Normally, no proposal to put up a portrait is rejected outright.

@Payal_Rohatgi 9. Neither did CPM’s Somnath Chatterjee protest .Perhaps due to his father N.C. Chatterjee’s portrait in Parliament in 1995. N.C. Chatterjee, who succeeded Savarkar as the Hindu Mahasabha president,his portrait was unveiled by the then vice-president K.R. Narayanan.

@Payal_Rohatgi 10. Also silent were the then Congress chief whip in the Rajya Sabha Pranab Mukherjee and CPI’s J Chittaranjan, two of the members of the joint committee on the installation of portraits/statues of national leaders and parliamentarians in the Parliament House Complex.

@Payal_Rohatgi 11. Yet, when the time came for unveiling his portrait on 26 Feb 2003, not until February 25 when Congress President Sonia Gandhi – persuaded by the CPI(M) and a group of Delhi’s Left historians – wrote to the President Kalam to review his decision to unveil Savarkar’s portrait.

@Payal_Rohatgi 12.Sonia herself along with entire Opposition boycotted the installation of Savarkar’s portrait in Parliament on 26 Feb 2003.]A peeved Sonia Gandhi then humiliated Shivraj Patil and Pranab Mukherjee at a meeting of the Political Affairs Committee of the Congress in Parliament.

@Payal_Rohatgi 13. The party’s problems did not end there. The controversy began to take shape as the BJP went about its task of revealing how former Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi’s mother-in-law Indira Gandhi had extended her patronage to perpetuate Savarkar’s memory.

@Payal_Rohatgi 14. Sonia Gandhi loyalists winced when informed of Indira Gandhi’s decision to issue a commemorative stamp in Savarkar’s honour in 1970, a private donation of Rs 11,000 to his memorial fund a decade later in 1980 and commissioning a Films Division documentary on him.

@Payal_Rohatgi 15. Indira Gandhi is on record saying as PM: “Savarkar’s defiance of the British has its own place in the freedom struggle.”

“Indira Gandhi was not a narrow-minded person,” said former Union Information and Broadcasting Minister and Congress leader Vasant Sathe in 2003.

@Payal_Rohatgi 16. In 1983, he recalled, she personally cleared the Films Division documentary on him. “Savarkar’s contribution to the freedom struggle has to be viewed in totality. You can disagree with his Hindutva, but cannot ignore that he was a great poet and a rationalist,” he says.

@Payal_Rohatgi 17.After being cornered on Indira’s praise,some people lied that Savarkar’s petitions to the British became public only after Indira's death. In truth, Savarkar’s “My Transportation” was available in English since 1950 in which he himself mentioned these petitions to the British

@Payal_Rohatgi 17.He died in Feb 1966, and all his works were published by that time. “My Transportation” [Majhi Janmathep] was published in Marathi much before that, first published in 1927 when he was under confinement in Ratnagiri.

@Payal_Rohatgi 18.What kind of life Savarkar had to face in jail in the Andamans from 1911 to 1921? a few notings:

(I) 6 months solitary confinement;
(II) 7 days standing handcuffs
(III) Absolutely refusing to work, ten days crossbar fetters.

How many Congressis suffered such punishments?

@Payal_Rohatgi 19. How sympathetic were the British to Jawaharlal Nehru? Only a few of the many instances are given here.

Motilal Nehru died on February 6, 1931, in Lucknow, with Jawaharlal Nehru and Gandhiji at his bedside. How could Gandhi and Nehru be at his bedside?

@Payal_Rohatgi 20. Because “On January 25th [1931] Viceroy, Lord Irwin, ordered the unconditional release of Gandhi and the members of the Congress Working Committee, including Nehru.” [Source: Frank Moraes- Jawaharlal Nehru, p 171]

Kamala Nehru went to Europe for treatment. “On Sep. 4, 1935,

@Payal_Rohatgi 21. Nehru was suddenly discharged from Almora, five and half months before his term was to expire…[On 5 Sept] On the same afternoon he set out by Air for Europe…On the evening of September 9th, he reached Badenweiler”. [Source: Frank Moraes wrote Jawaharlal Nehru, p 246.]

@Payal_Rohatgi 22. No one grudges this sympathetic treatment to Nehru. One only wishes that people should know that the Savarkar brothers met their family members only once in 10 years in the Andamans. And in this meeting,his elder brother Babarao came to know that his wife had died earlier.

@Payal_Rohatgi 23. British also did not even inform for many months either of the Savarkar brothers that their other brother is also in the same jail in Andamans! Neither elder brother Babarao nor Swatantryaveer Savarkar knew for many months that their other brother is also in the same jail!

@Payal_Rohatgi 24.Here are real contrasting approaches.

Nehru was kept in a palatial guest house in Almora. But so harsh were the British to Savarkar brothers, that they made them do the work of a bull of taking out oil from jail in Andamans.

@Payal_Rohatgi 25. Frank Moraes further writes: “Nehru had given no undertaking when he came out of jail, but he felt it would be improper to engage in political activities during the respite . In Savarkar’s case,Govt. imposed the condition that he should not engage in political activities.

@Payal_Rohatgi 26. In 1937, when all restrictions imposed on Savarkar were removed and Savarkar became free, Subhashchandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru and M. N. Roy welcomed him to full freedom.

Congress’ allegation that Savarkar supported the two-nation theory is answered here.

@Payal_Rohatgi 27. Those of Italian origin who took 15 years after marriage to in 1968 to even apply for Indian citizenship have the audacity to insult National Heroes and fiery patriots like Savarkar!

This thread is compiled from extracts of an article in @OpIndia_com on 27th May,19