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Cong.-led MCD's tributes to Savarkar

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI MAY 28. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and her entire party leadership might have boycotted the unveiling of the portrait of Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, in Parliament House on February 26 -- for his alleged "dubious role'' in Indian history -- but the Deputy Mayor of Delhi, Varyam Kaur, today not only offered floral tributes at his statue but also praised the "Sangh ideologue'' on the occasion of his 120th birth anniversary.

The views of the Central leadership apparently do not carry much weight with the Congress-ruled Municipal Corporation of Delhi which held an official function at his statue in Lajpat Nagar to mark his birth anniversary.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Kaur praised the role played by Savarkar during the freedom struggle and also for his patriotism. Paying glowing tribute to the ideologue of the Sangh Parivar, she said Savarkar had several firsts to his credit. "Savarkar was the first Indian student who was rusticated from the collage for his patriotism. He was the first person to make a bonfire of foreign clothes and goods. He was the first person who was convicted and sentenced to a double life term. He was the first author whose book was confiscated even before it was published. He was the first historian who described the 1857 war as the first war of Independence,'' Ms. Kaur said. "He was a great political thinker, historian and patriot.''

In her speech, the Deputy Commissioner Central Zone, Punya Srivastava, said Savarkar's cherished desire was to see India as a great and powerful nation after independence. "He was the exponent of the theory of one nation, one language and one people.''

The official function organised by the Congress-ruled civic body today reflected poorly on the party as the decisions taken by its Central leadership were not taken seriously by its leaders at the lower level. "Had it not been so, the Deputy Mayor of Delhi would not have attended such a function and paid glowing tributes to Savarkar, who not only filed a mercy petition before the British rulers but is also the seventh accused in the Mahatma Gandhi assassination case,'' said a senior party Councillor in MCD, adding: "This has caused a major embarrassment to the party.''

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