‘Thackeray Compromised on Ideology’: BJP Seeks Uddhav’s Clarification as K’taka Removes Lessons On Savarkar, Hedgewar

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday took on former ally Shiv Sena (UBT) for maintaining silence over the Congress-led Karnataka government’s move of removing Savarkar and Hedgewar from the school textbooks and asked former Maharastra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to clarify his stand on the matter.

The Congress-led Karnataka government on Thursday approved the revision of Kannada and Social Science textbooks of Classes 6 to 10 in the state for this academic year by removing the chapters on RSS founder K B Hedgewar and Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar among others.

Describing the Karnataka government’s move as ‘minority appeasement’, Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis has sought  Thackeray’s opinion of the move and asked if has made a ‘compromise’ on his ideology for power.

While Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) is a partner in the Maharashtra opposition bloc of Maha Vikas Aghadi, which also comprises the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), former ally BJP has often accused him of veering away from the Hindutva ideology.

Talking to reporters, Fadnavis said the revision in school textbooks in Karnataka was expected after the Congress returned to power in the southern state.

“The Congress can remove Savarkar and Hedgewar from textbooks but not from the hearts and minds of people. In Maharashtra, the Opposition wants to replicate the Karnataka model. I want to ask Uddhav Thackeray what is his stand on this issue,” he asked.

It is clear that Thackeray has compromised on his ideology for the sake of power, Fadnavis said.

The BJP’s attack on Thackeray on his ideology came two months after the Shiv Sena leader had cautioned senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi about making direct attacks on Savarkar. Thackeray had said Savarkar was akin to God for Shiv Sena and any insult to him will not be acceptable to his party. He had also warned of “cracks” in the opposition alliance if Savarkar was demeaned.

Speaking to reporters in Nagpur, Fadnavis’s BJP colleague and BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule also took a swipe at Shiv sena and said Thackeray should clear his stand on the textbook issue as well as the Karnataka government’s decision to repeal the anti-conversion-law, brought in by the previous government.

Bawankule also blamed Rahul Gandhi for the move and said, “It is Rahul Gandhi who asked the Karnataka government to remove the chapters on Veer Savarkar and withdraw the anti-conversion law. This is what happens in Karnataka if you vote for Congress.”

Apart from dropping chapters on Savarkar and Hedgewar, the Karnataka government also plans to include lessons on social reformer and educator Savitribai Phule, Jawaharlal Nehru’s letters to Indira Gandhi and poetry on Dr B R Ambedkar in the textbooks.

(With PTI Inputs)