Priyank questions Bharat Ratna push for Savarkar

Bengaluru: Rural development and panchayat raj minister Priyank Kharge launched a sharp attack on the demand to confer the Bharat Ratna on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, asking why a person who "worked against Bharat" should receive the country's highest civilian honour. In a post on X, Priyank, son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, listed a series of questions targeting Savarkar's role during the freedom struggle. He was responding to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's remarks that awarding Savarkar the Bharat Ratna would "increase the prestige" of the honour. "Bharat Ratna for a person who gave himself the title ‘Veer'?" Priyank wrote. Referring to Savarkar's imprisonment, he said: "The Cellular jail had 698 cells & 80,000 prisoners were jailed there over 33 years. Only a handful of them wrote mercy petitions, but the most petitions was submitted by #Veer," he said. He questioned why Savarkar wrote "six mercy petitions, including one from his wife," and "why he received a British pension of Rs 60 per month from Aug 1, 1929, until Independence in 1947". "Why did Veer seek an increase in pension?" he asked, adding, "Can RSS list his exact achievements against the British with evidence?" He also raised political and ideological questions, asking why Savarkar opposed the Quit India Movement and supported British recruitment of Indians in the army when Subhas Chandra Bose was forming the Indian National Army. Priyank also targeted Savarkar's role in the Hindu Mahasabha, asking why the party ran govts with the Muslim League and why it was not banned when other parties were restricted by the British. He also accused Savarkar of being the first to propose the two-nation theory and questioned his views on cow worship and nationalism. "Why did Veer call our Motherland as Fatherland? Bharath Ratna for a ‘veer' who worked against Bharath! Masterstroke!" he wrote. Bhagwat had demanded the Bharat Ratna for Savarkar during a two-day lecture series titled ‘100 Years of Sangh Journey — New Horizons' on Sunday.