On August 14, Karnataka woke up to an advertisement splashed on the front page of a prominent newspaper featuring the ruling BJP-led state government congratulating its citizens on its 75th year of Indian Independence.
What caught people’s attention was the absence of India’s first Prime Minister and Congressman Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the presence of the founder of the Hindutva organisation ‘Hindu Mahasabha’ Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, in the list of freedom fighters.
The list included Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, B R Ambedkar etc among other prominent freedom fighters,
The ad also contained freedom fighters from Karnataka featuring many prominent leaders such as Kittur Chennamma, Karnad Sadashiva Rao, and N S Hardikar. However, Tiger of Mysore Tipu Sultan’s name failed to find a space in the list.
Siddaramaiah slams Bommai
Taking strong exception to the non-inclusion of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the list of freedom fighters in the government advertisement published in newspapers on Sunday, the Congress attacked the BJP government in Karnataka, with its leader Siddaramaiah calling chief minister Basavaraj Bommai an “RSS slave”.
In a series of tweets, Siddaaramaiah, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, even attacked V D Savarkar, who is included in the advertisement, accusing him of pleading with British officials and acting as their “stooge” for his survival.
Further alleging that RSS has hatred towards Nehru because he had vociferously opposed its communalism, supported the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, and had banned it, Siddaramaiah asked “But, what is wrong with you? Mr Bommai?”
State Congress president D K Shivakumar too, accusing the government of trying to distort history, said he did not expect it from Bommai.
“Is it a humiliation to you Mr CM to include Nehru? You can’t change history. Other than being in jail, and giving away his (Nehru) property, he was the first Prime Minister during whose tenure the Constitution and national flag came. He has given everything. I don’t know why you are doing it. This is not Karnataka’s culture,” he said.
This is not the first time that Pandit Nehru is being ignored when it comes to his contribution to India’s freedom struggle. On August 13, a senior Aaj Tak anchor Sweta Singh uploaded a video on her official Twitter account where she is seen standing against an old video of a newly independent India but completely blocking Nehru.
BJP attempt to clarify; contradicted by its cadre
The BJP on its official Twitter page attempted to cover up their act and said that they included a sketch of the former PM, while the others, including Savarkar, received a prominent and clear space. However, the BJP’s state general secretary, contradicted the party’s statement.
Reacting strongly to Karnataka Congress’s allegation of ignoring the country’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in the list of freedom fighters, BJP Karnataka reportedly stated that they had not excluded the veteran Congressman from the advertisement.
On its official Twitter page, BJP Karnataka circled Nehru’s sketch present on top of the list along with several other sketches adding, “Did the Congress forget Nehru’s face so quickly or is it cleverly blind?”
However, N Ravikumar, BJP’s state general secretary, had a contradicting statement in regards to the advertisement. Speaking to reporters
Hindutva worker rips off Tipu Sultan’s hoarding
In Bengaluru, a Hindutva worker named Puneeth Kerehalli and his friends tore off hoardings of Tipu Sultan at Hudson Circle.
The video that has gone viral on social media shows an angry Kerehalli referring to a 2016 observation of the Karnataka high court that said that the former ruler of Mysore was a monarch and not a freedom fighter.
“We had seen this poster in the morning but we didn’t do anything because it was the occasion of Independence and we did not want to create any chaos. But in Shimoga Veer Savarkar’s poster was damaged. So why should we allow his (Tipu Sultan’s) poster here,” Kerehalli said.
He then continued to rip off the hoardings raising slogans of Vande Mataram, Jai Shree Ram, Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Hindustan Zindabad, all at the same time.
The hoardings were put up by workers of the Indian National Congress (INC) Karnataka on the occasion of the 75th year of India’s Independence.
(With PTI inputs)
