Central Hall – Citizen Savarkar

Mumbai:

The unexpected spin-off effects of the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been such that it has put its former National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner, the Shiv Sena in an awkward fix. First it was forced to rethink on extending its support to the CAB in the Rajya Sabha. Secondly, its new found Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ally, the Congress, its leader Rahul Gandhi has put the Sena in a piquant situation over his controversial “rape capital” remark, refusing to apologise and kicking off another controversy by drawing an analogy with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar @ Veer Savarkar, arguing that he was not “Rahul Savarkar” and would not apologise for what he called “speaking the truth”.

For the BJP, the CAB has opened up the fault lines at least in Maharashtra between the Congress and Sena, and within the Janata Dal (United), in Bihar. During the heated debate in the Rajya Sabha over the CAB, the opposition Congress had tried to turn the tables on the BJP contending that the two nation theory of India and Pakistan was the invention of its revered idol Veer Savarkar and Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

To which Union Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh pulled off letter written by Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi on May 20, 1980 to Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak, Secretary, Pandit Bakhle on the occasion of birth centenary of Veer Savarkar. “I have received your letter of the 9^th May, 1980. Veer Savarkar’s daring defiance has its own important place in the annals of our freedom movement. I wish success to the plans to celebrate the birth centenary of this remarkable son of India”, said Prime Minister, late Indira Gandhi in her letter.

Pavan Verma and Prashant Kishor of the JD-U have voiced their opposition to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to support the CAB. The Sena too after having supported the CAB in the Lok Sabha a day earlier, was forced to make a climb down a day later in the Rajya Sabha. Even though the three Sena MP’s boycotted the voting and walked out from the Rajya Sabha, to suggest that it was opposing the bill. However, in doing so, the Sena boycott meant that the total of present and voting MP’s in the house got reduced and thereby the half-way, majority mark, enabling the BJP to yet again get its crucial bill passed in both the houses of the Parliament.

The predicament for the Sena was that it could not do much other than bow down to the dictate of the Congress in withdrawing its support to the CAB or run the risk of losing the government in Maharashtra. Still left smarting under its forced U turn, the Sena could not do much as Kapil Sibal pinned the blame of the partition on Veer Savarkar. It was left upon Union Home Minister Amit Shah to counter asking the Congress why did it agree for the partition then in 1947.

Senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut did try to put up a brave face by mildly denouncing the former Congress president for his Savarkar analogy arguing that Maharashtra could not accept any compromise when it came to respecting its revered idols. But how long will this timid, weak, finger wagging protest last is anybody’s guess after what happened after the passage of the CAB in the Lok Sabha in the wee hours of December 10.

To make matters worse Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will face his first litmus test as he faces a formidable opposition in the form of the BJP in the winter session of the state legislature that begins in Nagpur from December 16, Monday. On the national level, on a wider canvas of the Parliament, one tends to get crowded out, unless you have any political nuisance value. Same is not true in Maharashtra, as the attack is on its revered idol Veer Savarkar and the Sena appears to be caught in a bind.