Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Nirupam condemns Karnataka Minister Gundu Rao’s ‘beef’ comments on Savarkar

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 3 (ANI): Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday condemned Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao’s statement on Veer Savarkar’s ideology and claims of him “consuming beef” despite being a Chitpavan brahmin, saying that Rao’s statement is an “insult to Veer Savarkar.”

“Once again, the Congress party has made a very low-level comment against Swatantra Veer Savarkar. The comment made by the Health Minister of Karnataka on Veer Savarkar is completely condemnable; it is an insult to him,” Nirupam said in a self-made video.

The Shiv Sena leader warned the Congress that if they keep insulting Veer Savarkar again and again, then the people of Maharashtra will bury the Congress party in the ground.

“Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirupam said that Savarkar ji played an important role in India’s freedom struggle. I want to tell the Congress and threaten them that the people of Maharashtra love Savarkar ji very much and if they keep insulting him like this again and again, then the people of Maharashtra will bury the Congress party in the ground, so the Congress party should stop insulting Savarkar,” he said.

Earlier, Ranjit Savarkar, the grandson of Veer Savarkar, said that it was Congress’s strategy to defame Savarkar, especially when elections were at the door. He stated that the Congress wanted to divide Hindu society into different castes in order to win elections and that it was the Britisher’s policy of “divide and rule.”

Ranjit Savarkar also said that the claims of Veer Savarkar “consuming beef” were false and that he would also file a defamation suit against Gundu Rai for his statement.

“This is a strategy of Congress to defame Savarkar time and again, particularly when elections are coming. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi was doing it and now his leaders are making statements… Congress has shown its real face now. Congress wants to divide Hindu society between castes and win elections. This is like the Britisher’s policy of divide and rule,” he said.

“The statement about Savarkar eating beef and supporting cow slaughter is false. His original article in Marathi meant that cows were very useful and that’s why they are considered deities. He was also the president of a Gau Raksha Samelan… I am going to file a defamation suit against him,” he added.

He further claimed that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had always followed the policies of Veer Savarkar and never followed a single policy of Nehru or Gandhi.

Earlier on Wednesday, Karnataka Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said that Savarkar’s fundamentalist ideology was very different from the Indian culture, despite him being a nationalist and that it wouldn’t be Savarkar’s argument but Mahatma Gandhi’s that should win in the country.

Speaking at a book launch of the Kannada version of “Gandhi’s Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India” by journalist Dhirendra K. Jha, Rao said, “If we can say with a discussion that Savarkar wins, that’s not right; he was a non-vegetarian eater, and he wasn’t against cow slaughter; he was a Chitpavan brahmin. Savarkar was modernist in that way but his fundamental thinking was different. Some people said he used to eat beef and he was openly propagating eating beef, so that thinking is different. But Gandhiji had a lot of belief in Hinduism and was conservative in that but his actions were different because he was democratic in that way.”