Author: PTI
Publication: The Hindu
Date: September 21, 2004
URL: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/001200409211851.htm
Led by Sushma Swaraj, 150 BJP MPs
and MLAs today marched carrying a plaque containing Veer Savarkar's quotation
demanding its restoration in the Cellular Jail here, but courted arrest
when the local administration prevented them from doing so.
BJP Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha
Swaraj, who was on a flower-decorated truck, led the batch of 107 MPs,
including several former Union Ministers, and 43 MLAs on an uphill journey
from the Tiranga Park towards the Cellular Jail about a kilometre away
amidst tight security arrangements.
Raising slogans such as "the nation
will not tolerate insult to freedom fighters", they made their way peacefully
through police barricades until they reached the road outside the historic
monument, where prohibitory orders had been promulgated.
They were then rounded up by police
and taken in buses to the nearby Netaji Stadium, designated as a jail.
Before they were arrested, Swaraj
and other senior BJP leaders including former Human Resource Development
Minister Murli Manohar Joshi garlanded statues of Savarkar and other freedom
fighters in a park named after Savarkar, across the road from the national
monument.
Plaque handed for 'safekeeping'
They then handed over the brass
plaque containing Savarkar's quotation to Deputy Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti
for "safekeeping".
"We ask the administration to take
good care of the plaque till a government that respects patriots comes
back to power and issues instructions to restore it inside the Cellular
Jail", Swaraj said.
The original plaque containing revolutionary
quotations of Savarkar and Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah Zafar had been removed
on orders of Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer last month.
Fiery speeches
Before commencing their half-hour
long 'Andaman Satyagraha' march, the BJP MPs made fiery speeches at the
Tiranga Park denouncing the Congress and its "foreigner" President Sonia
Gandhi for "insulting" the memory of freedom fighters.
"The fact that over 100 MPs and
nearly 50 MLAs have assembled here to protest the removal of Savarkar's
plaque demonstrates our anger and anguish," Swaraj said.
"What is so objectionable about
Savarkar's quote? It reads: 'Vande Mataram! We have not taken the oath
of patriotism with our eyes closed. We have examined this choice in history's
burning flames. We have consciously and after due thought resolved to burn
ourselves in this sacred fire. We have taken a pledge of self-sacrifice'.
"What is it about this revolutionary
quotation that has evoked so much hatred towards the plaque? The fact is,
the Gandhi-Nehru family wants to take all the credit for India's freedom
struggle. Should all the buildings, roads, hospitals be named after members
of the family which has ruled India for two-thirds of its Independent years,"
she asked.
Sushma slams Sonia
Directing most of her ire at Sonia
Gandhi, Swaraj said "a firangi (foreigner) cannot know what freedom fighters
have sacrificed for this country. Only Aiyer is not responsible for this
action."
She said she had made a last-minute
appeal to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to allow restoration of the plaque
so that the controversy ended once and for all, but that did not happen.
Joshi said the Savarkar issue was
not an isolated one. "The Congress and the Left parties in a calculated
manner are trying to denigrate, belittle and remove the contribution of
freedom fighers, even from textbooks.
"Why is the government hesitating
in restoration of the plaque even though the Prime Minister himself said
Savarkar was a great patriot," he asked.
Describing Aiyer as the "leftover
of Left parties being dished out to the Congress", former Union Minsiter
Yashwant Sinha alleged that the Petroleum Minister raised money for the
Chinese when they invaded India in 1962.
Were promises made?
BJP Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha V
K Malhotra claimed Union Urban Development Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had
earlier promised him that the plaque would be restored, but wilted under
orders from Gandhi.
Though Swaraj repeatedly claimed
that the timing of the 'Andaman Satyagraha' had nothing to do with Maharashtra
elections, Malhotra made an indirect reference to it when he blasted Congress
and NCP for giving money to the family of alleged ISI agent Ishrat Banu
who was shot dead by police.
Other prominent BJP lawmakers who
participated in the march were former Union Ministers B C Khanduri, Satyanarayan
Jatiya, Sahib Singh Verma and Ravi Shanker Prasad, former Jharkhand Chief
Minister Babulal Marandi and former Deputy Chairperson of Rajya Sabha Najma
Heptullah.
Ater spending about two hours in
the Netaji Stadium 'jail', the lawmakers were released on signing a bond
pledging to uphold peace.
Local Congress MP Manoranjan Bhakta,
who led about 300 people in a rally here on Monday to protest BJP's programme,
had said the saffron party was only interested in disturbing law and order
instead of concentrating on the development of the island group.
Police and paramilitary forces were
on "maximum mobilisation" here today to ensure that nothing untoward took
place.
"We are more interested in protecting
the honourable MPs and MLAs from trouble makers. We do not anticipate any
problem from them," Deputy Superintendent of Police Bipin Chowdhury said.
