A pillar with busts of Veer Savarkar, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh has been put up at the North Campus of Delhi University on Tuesday. The pillar was installed by the ABVP-led Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU). ABVP is the RSS’ students’ wing. As per DUDU’s own admission, the pillar was installed without the permission of the University.
“We have written to university officials several times asking for permission to set up such a monument — last November, this March, April and again in August — but we got no response. So we decided to go ahead and do it ourselves,” said DUSU president Shakti Singh, who is the “installer” as per the plaque on the pillar.
Some people, however, have objected specifically to the Savarkar bust that was installed on the campus. The youth wing of the Congress is being blamed and it is being alleged that the Congress is a party full of Sanghis.
Savarkar’s bust placed in DU.
NSUI doesn’t even squeak against it.
I suggest @INCIndia to sack every single office bearer of their student union. What’s the point of @priyankagandhi ji & @RahulGandhi ji to speak so vehemently against the Sangh but have a party full of Sanghis?— Zainab Sikander (@zainabsikander) August 21, 2019
Others, of a more volatile nature, see the installation of Savarkar’s bust as a prelude to the installation of Nathuram Godse’s bust. “That is who we have become,” says Sankarshan Thakur, editor of the far-left loony The Telegraph.
A garlanded bust of Nathuram Godse will very soon come up in a public space, and its installation will be vociferously defended and celebrated. That is who we have become https://t.co/Hv0kzm1LOJ
— Sankarshan Thakur (@SankarshanT) August 21, 2019
NSUI, the students’ wing of the Congress party, straight-out lied that Savarkar worked against the freedom struggle. Even the mercy petitions ought to be seen in their proper context. One can read behind the actual reasons of Savarkar’s mercy petitions here. Moreover, Savarkar did not give up his political struggle after being released, he continued to serve our motherland as the president of the Hindu Mahasabha.
VD Savarkar had pleaded for mercy to the British and thus worked against freedom struggle. Putting his bust in DU by ABVP is an attempt to distort history. #Savarkar cannot match Subhash Chandra Bose & Bhagat Singh by being put on the same pedestal by the ABVP. pic.twitter.com/Zrjg9RGjYR
— NSUI (@nsui) August 21, 2019
The objection to Savarkar’s bust only goes on to show the extremely little respect liberals have for freedom fighters who opposed Nehruvianism. According to them, freedom fighters who opposed the flawed doctrine of Nehruvianism aren’t worthy of any respect. Attempts are made to vilify them and distort their actions to suit their particular narrative.
As much as they may denounce Savarkar, it is a fact that the seeds of Hindutva Savarkar had sown all those years ago have finally bloomed and Hindutva now dominates the corridors of power. Furthermore, Hindutva is not a fringe ideology anymore, it’s the political mainstream of the country and with time, liberalism is poised to become a fringe ideology. It’s only natural that they had the man who envisioned such a future.
