JAIPUR : Even as the BJP was busy celebrating the birth anniversary of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar across the country, a political storm has erupted over the RSS ideologue in Congress-ruled Rajasthan. Vasudev Devnani, who was the education minister in the previous BJP government, flayed the Ashok Gehlot government for questioning the ‘Veer’ title of Savarkar.
He said the state government appeared to be unaware of the fact that even former prime minister Indira Gandhi had showered praise on Savarkar. Advising the Gehlot govt to read up the history of its own leader, Devnani claimed the Indira government had issued a special stamp to commemorate Savarkar’s courage.
The comments came in the wake of the recent decision of the state government to drop the ‘Veer’ title from Savarkar’s name in school textbooks. The revised textbook mentions that Savarkar had described himself as “son of Portugal” when seeking clemency from the British.