Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, “Lies were spread about Savarkar” and that it was on Mahatma Gandhi’s request that he wrote mercy petitions to the British.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh slammed the critics of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar on Tuesday, saying that the freedom fighter was being defamed over the mercy petitions he filed during British rule in India. He said, “Lies were spread about Savarkar” and that Mahatma Gandhi had advised him to write mercy petitions.
Hailing Veer Savarkar as a staunch nationalist and India’s first military strategist in the 20th century, Rajnath Singh said it was on Mahatma Gandhi’s advice that he wrote mercy petitions to the British and people from the Marxist and Leninist ideology wrongly accuse him as a fascist.
“Lies were spread about Savarkar. Time and again, it was said that he filed mercy petitions before the British government seeking his release from jail…The truth is, he didn’t file mercy petitions to get himself released. It is a regular practice for a [jailed] person to file mercy petitions. It was Mahatma Gandhi who asked him to file mercy petitions,” Rajnath Singh said while speaking at the launch of a book on Savarkar on Tuesday.
Mahatma Gandhi had then said that Sarvarkar should be released. The way we are carrying out a peaceful movement to gain freedom, Sarvarkarji should also be allowed to do the same,” Rajnath Singh said.
