'Randeep, get your facts right,' says Netaji's grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose

Randeep Hooda’s directorial debut, Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, has stirred a controversy, thanks to his claim that the freedom fighter and Hindutva’s ideologue was the inspiration behind Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh and Khudiram Bose, the youngest martyr of the freedom struggle.

The first salvo was fired by Netaji’s grandnephew and on-again, off-again BJP politician Chandra Kumar Bose, who warned Hooda in a tweet, “If you respect #Savarkar, please don’t distort history”, and then said in an interview with a news channel that his famous grand-uncle was inspired by two people—Swami Vivekananda and Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das.

Interestingly, Chandra Kumar Bose ran an excerpt from a speech delivered by Netaji at Jhargram in West Bengal on May 12, 1940, which had a message that is more relevant than ever today. Netaji had said, “By taking advantage of religion and desecrating it, the Hindu Mahasabha has entered the arena of politics. It is the duty of all Hindus to condemn it… Banish these traitors from national life. Don’t listen to them.” Savarkar, incidentally, was a Hindu Mahasabha leader.

Bhagat Singh was a committed Marxist who had also read up Mikhail Bakunin, the founder of Anarchism. Coming to Khudiram Bose, he was barely 18 when he was hanged. Bose had nothing to do with Savarkar. Savarkar, contrary to what Hooda is propagating, had no role in the lives of these three freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives for the country.