Not just the BJP, some Left Front leaders too are upset over petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar’s decision to remove the plaque of Veer Savarkar’s sayings from Cellular Jail Memorial in Port Blair.
A senior Left Front leader and member of the coordination committee, according to sources, told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the decision to remove Savarkar’s plaque was uncalled for and it could become an "emotive issue" in the Maharashtra Assembly poll. In fact, the CPI(M), which has been somewhat quiet over the Savarkar issue, endorsed Savarkar’s contribution to the freedom movement in a book on freedom fighters published by the West Bengal government.
With the Congress desperately trying to clarify its position on Savarkar, a senior Left Front leader who is firmly entrenched in Maharashtra politics, reportedly expressed his displeasure over the removal of the plaque. The leader indicated to the Prime Minister that Mr Aiyar’s move was "uncalled for" and could provide BJP-Shiv Sena combine a "major political advantage during the forthcoming polls." Somewhat "irritated" over the move, the Left leader asked why was there "such a lack of coordination" within the Congress when it "came to certain sensitive issues." Although the Congress has officially distanced itself from Mr Aiyar’s move, both the BJP and the Shiv Sena have been keeping the issue alive.
The CPI(M) was also caught on the wrong foot over the issue. The West Bengal government’s department of information and culture published a book in 1987 hailing Savarkar’s contribution
to the freedom movement.
The publication, Indian Freedom Struggle: An Album, also has foreword by former chief minister Jyoti Basu, who had written about the contributions of the freedom fighters, including Savarkar and Madan Lal Dhingra.
The publication, which gives details
of the lives of the freedom fighters, also regarded 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." It talks about 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.