The CPI(M), which has been consistently targeting freedom fighter Veer Savarkar for violent trends in Sangh politics, in 1987 published a book hailing Savarkar’s contribution to the freedom movement.
However on Friday, CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury cited ideologies propounded by freedom fighters Veer Savarkar and B.S. Moonje to insist that there was nothing new in the violent strain of Hindutva. The publication, Indian Freedom Struggle, An Album, also has a foreword by Jyoti Basu, commenting about the contribution of the freedom fighters, including Savarkar and Madan Lal Dhingra.
Speaking at a function on Friday, Mr Yechury said: “The violent strain in Hindutva is very old. The two-nation theory, as reminded to us by Digvijay Singh, was propounded by Savarkar, who also spoke about militarising Hindu dharma and Hinduising all politics.”
However, the Marxist publication, which gives details of the lives of the freedom fighters, also regards Savarkar as a “great revolutionary”. The publication states, “Ganesh Damodar and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar had formed a revolutionary organisation called Mitra Mela in 1899. This was later renamed as Abhinav Bharat Samiti in 1907.” It also provides glimpses of Savarkar’s “revolutionary zeal”.
While Mr Yechury targets B.S. Moonje, one of the founders of the Hindu nationalist movement and the RSS, the Left Front government publication also talks of the other Hindu nationalist leader, Madan Lal Dhingra, member of Abhinav Bharat, who shot Sir Curzon Wylie dead in London. The same year, A.M.T. Jackson, collector of Nashik, was shot dead in India.
The British government held Savarkar responsible for these killings and he was arrested in Britain in 1910. While he was being brought to India, Savarkar jumped into a ship porthole at Marseilles and swam ashore. The guards pursued him and he was re-arrested, tried and sentenced to transportation for life, about 11 years of which he spent in Andamans. All this information is provided in the Marxist government’s publication.