Notably, Gandhi's remarks about Savarkar comes just two days after the Congress leader called Savarkar a symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Gandhi's statements angered many triggering protests. While this did anger the BJP and the Shiv Sena faction, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday took to Twitter to reply to RaGa amid the ongoing debates and angered protests.
"Now just read what former Prime Minister of India Mrs. Indira Gandhi (your grandmother) had said about Swatantryaveer Savarkar ji...Here she calls Veer Savarkar ji the pillar of the freedom movement and the forever remembered son of India." Fadnavis wrote in his tweet.
In a long thread of tweets, Fadnavis hit back on every statement that RaGa directed at the deputy chief minister. He shared a letter written by Mahatma Gandhi and asked Gandhi if the last sentences of the letters were still the same from when Rahul Gandhi quoted it saying that ‘Savarkar had helped the British.’
“Yesterday you asked me to read the last lines of a letter, Come on, now let me read some documents to you today. Have you read this letter of our respected Mahatma Gandhi? Does it have the same last lines you wanted me to read?" Fadnavis wrote.
Fadnavis further quoted Congress leader and former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, who according to the deputy CM's statement “says that Swatantryaveer Savarkar was an intense nationalist. His commitment to social reform, energy to teach today's young generation".
Fadnavis also further quoted NCP leader Sharad Pawar and mentioned ‘two life imprisonments ’ of Savarkar during the freedom struggle.
Addressing a press conference at Wadegaon in Akola district, Gandhi showed documents dating back to 1920 to media persons, claiming that they contained a letter written by Savarkar to the British. "I will read the last line, which says 'I beg to remain your most obedient servant' and is signed V D Savarkar, which shows he helped the British," Gandhi said at the media interaction during his Bharat Jodo Yatra that is in the last leg in Maharashtra.
He said he was of the view that Savarkar signed the letter out of fear and in doing so, he betrayed Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders of the freedom struggle.
Rahul Gandhi was already under fire of the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena for calling Savarkar a symbol of BJP. Savarkar's grandson on Thursday lodged a police complaint against Gandhi in Mumbai for "insulting" his grandfather.
Further, former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, whose Shiv Sena faction is an ally of the Congress, said on Thursday that he does not approve of Gandhi's remarks on Savarkar (made on Tuesday) and maintained that his party has immense respect for the freedom fighter.
