THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Condemning what he termed a calculated distortion of history, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for using his Independence Day address to glorify RSS and V D Savarkar.
“The attempt to portray the RSS, which was banned following Gandhi’s assassination and V D Savarkar, who stood trial in the murder conspiracy, as major contributors of Indian independence is a blatant distortion of history. Choosing Independence Day to glorify those who served the British amounts to insulting our freedom struggle,” said the chief minister.
Pinarayi Vijayan said no such shameful act can whitewash the RSS, which he described as a communal organisation with a divisive past. He called the Prime Minister’s act of praising the RSS on a day that symbolises national unity “show of contempt for the very day”.
Citing the Union Ministry of Petroleum’s Independence Day greeting card that placed Savarkar’s image above Mahatma Gandhi’s, the CM said this was part of a larger conspiracy. “This anxiety comes from fear of the true history of India’s freedom struggle,” he said.
He recalled that India’s independence movement was one that saw people of every caste, religion, language, and culture standing together. “In contrast, the RSS wore the cloak of espionage,” he added.
Vijayan accused the RSS of always opposing the core principles of the freedom movement. “While Indian nationalism embraced unity in diversity, the RSS pushed a Hindutva nationalism rooted in majoritarian communalism,” he noted.
Pointing to the editorial published in ‘Organiser’, the RSS mouthpiece, on November 26, 1949 -the day the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution- he said it rejected the Constitution and called for the Manusmriti to be upheld instead.
He also criticised the Hindu Mahasabha, then led by Savarkar, for choosing to boycott the first Independence Day in 1947. “This was the same Savarkar who begged the British for mercy with folded hands. It is he whom the Sangh Parivar now tries to present as a leader in place of Gandhi,” he said.
The RSS, which kept itself away from every major phase of the freedom movement, is now busy creating false narratives to claim a share in it, CM said. He said those who ignore true martyrs like those who died in Punnapra-Vayalar or the Wagon Tragedy are the ones now trying to rewrite history to suit their politics.
“What respect can those who declared August 14 as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’ have for Independence Day?” he asked.
Calling the RSS an organisation burdened with hatred, violence, and communalism, Pinarayi Vijayan said its ideology has no moral claim over the legacy of India’s freedom struggle. “The memory of Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, and other martyrs cannot be equated with such people,” he said.
He concluded by noting that the country must stay united to resist any attempt to erase the history of love and harmony and replace it with hatred.