Congress “should cease talking about Savarkar” and the Bharatiya Janata Party should end its litany of complaints about what Nehru did, said Uddhav Thackeray.
It is perhaps the best advice anyone could give in this atmosphere of a nation cleaved by ideologies.
Had this come from a non-politician, it would carry little weight. The left-of-centre community including intellectuals has been critical of Savarkar and supportive of Nehru, probably with sufficient reason. That, however, has kept the country in the same rut for over two decades. It did, however, come from a most unlikely person–a votary of Hindutva.
Uddhav Thackeray did go a step further. Both Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Jawaharlal Nehru did their deeds and are now in the past. What should concern us now, Uddhav urged is “what we are doing today.” The emphasis was on the contemporaneous state of affairs in the country and how it was being dealt with.
These were wise words indeed and briefly stated. But the competitive politicians did, of course, lurk under the surface and he did not miss the chance of a well-aimed potshot. If the love for Savarkar and his deeds were their talisman, then the government should confer the Bharat Ratna on him.
Critical to the extent of bringing almost everything under the Indian sun by contextualizing them to either Nehru, his dynasty, ‘misrule’, or Savarkar, his role or lack of it, depending on their perspectives, in the Independence movement or petitioning the British et al. Misinformation about both prevails. Whataboutary passes off as debate.
Even the debate on the Constitution by which the parties like the Congress want to remain untouched now and the Right Wing which faults most of it on Congress and Nehru failed to ignite any intellectual discourse. If it did, it was in newspaper columns, mostly in the on-line sector. All sides have disappointed us in the Parliament.
Time and again the Modi government had been reminded about Savarkar not being honoured with Bharat Ratna. As a Chief Minister, “I have seen the files,” and found that Devendra Fadnavis in his earlier term as a chief minister had written to the Centre about it, not just once. The get-on-with-it tone was palpable.
It is, however, hard to believe that politicians can shed their peeves, especially when they are central to their ideologies. However, that has to be done because the country deserves better issues to deal with than remaining obsessed with two personalities while entirely forgetting the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.
Let me share a conversation I had with Lal Krishna Advani during which he was asked a simple, straightforward question. Did he realise if, and to what extent, his Ram Janambhoomi campaign of his had set back the country by distracting from other issues? It was not on the PL480 programme but had several pressing issues to deal with.
He paused, leaned forward, and grasped my hands with his in a tight clutch and he began to say something. He forced a smile and said nothing. To me, that was a sign that other things that faced the country were being sidelined. Savarkar, Nehru, and others of that era, either inspired people or were repugnant to them but they are occupying a larger than required space now.
It is difficult to estimate the impact Uddhav Thackeray would make or if his urgings find traction in the public sphere. It is likely that the media would spin it as the day’s news story and tell the world that though he was an ally of Congress, he was chiding it. Or, that being the political rival of the BJP, what he said was from the politician’s normal playbook.
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