“Mani Shankar Aiyar wants to wipe out my father’s name from the history and politics of India,” said a visibly irritated Vishwas Savarkar, the son of legendary freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
In an exclusive interview with Mid Day, Savarkar said that Aiyar’s remarks were based on pre-conceived notions, which were untrue.
Added Vishwas Savarkar (77), “His decision is absolutely insulting and he must apologise. True nationalists will forgive him only if he orders the reinstatement of my father’s quotations in the Port Blair jail.’’
Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had recently ordered the removal of a poem penned by Savarkar, which was inscribed on the ‘swatantrya jyot’ at the Cellular Jail at Port Blair, Andamans, where the fiery freedom fighter spent 11 years. Aiyar was reported to have issued the instruction during a visit to the jail on Independence Day.
Vishwas grew up in Savarkar’s company in Ratnagiri where the freedom fighter spent time from 1924 to 1937. Vishwas, who was around 12 at the time, remembers those days clearly.
In 1927, three years after being released from Andaman, the freedom fighter had been staying in Ratnagiri. At the time, reminisces Vishwas, Mahatma Gandhi had visited their house with his wife Kasturba.
“Gandhiji had great respect for my father then. In fact, he had told Kasturbaji to pay her respects to my mother, Yamunabai, as she had suffered a lot since my father had been jailed.”
He says that the general notion in this country was that Savarkar had apologised to the British.
“The truth is that my father had realised that it was impossible getting out of Andaman jail where he was serving a long sentence. It was therefore difficult to work for the freedom movement against the British, while he was imprisoned.
Therefore, as a part of his strategy, Tatya (as Savarkar was called by Vishwas) appealed to the British to set him free, but the stance was diplomatic.”
Vishwas Savarkar stays in Savarkar Sadan, a building at Dadar. His two daughters are married. The allegations about his father disturb him and he feels that the Shiv Sena and BJP are justified in their agitation against Aiyar.
But he also acknowledges the pro-Savarkar statements of Sushilkumar Shinde and Prabha Rau, who belong to the same party as Aiyar’s, and also the one issued by the NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
He reiterates that his father was not a Muslim-hater at all. In fact, he had two close Muslim aides, Sir Sikander Hayat Khan and Barrister Asaf Ali, and also two Christians in his Abhinav Bharat movement.
During 1942, Savarkar refused to support the Quit India Movement and said that Quit India should not lead to split India. Savarkar turned against Gandhi chiefly because of the two-nation theory.
Vishwas feels that the misunderstandings
in India about Savarkar is because people have not read about him.