Row over Savarkar's portrait in UP House gallery

Lucknow January 20

A portrait of Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar in the picture gallery of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council has sparked a row, with Congress MLC Deepak Singh raising an objection and writing a letter to the Chairman seeking its removal. The portrait was inaugurated by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday.

“The installation of the picture of Savarkarji along with that of great freedom fighters who withstood atrocities of the British and yet did not bow before them is an insult to all those who continued to bear all kind of torture and kept fighting for independence,” he wrote to Chairman Ramesh Yadav. He also said the picture should be removed and be placed in the BJP parliamentary office.

Singh said the Chairman had directed the Principal Secretary of the Legislative Council to look into the matter and take necessary action.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, asked to comment on the issue, said there should be a debate among the youth on the contribution made to the country by different people. He said those who had contributed to the freedom struggle should be honoured. Inaugurating the portrait, the Chief Minister had termed Savarkar as a great freedom fighter and philosopher whose personality remained a source of inspiration for all Indians.

While the BJP counts on Savarkar’s contribution to India’s freedom movement and calls him a “great patriot”, the Congress and other Opposition parties have long shunned him for his alleged link to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin. PTI