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Savarkar issue: BJP MPs court arrest

Savarkar issue: BJP MPs court arrest

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.
 


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