Amid a controversy, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi backed up his recent remarks Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar by showing a copy of his letter to the the British seeking mercy when he was imprisoned during the freedom struggle. "Savarkar ji wrote: 'I beg to remain, sir, your most obedient servant.' When Savarkar ji signed this, what was the reason? It was fear," said Mr Gandhi at a press conference in Maharashtra.
On disagreements with allies such as Uddhav Thackeray's faction of the Shiv Sena, he said, "If someone wants to put their ideology forward, they should." "This is my opinion about Savarkar ji signing this letter," he said, citing that Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel spent years in jail, "yet they never signed such a letter". "These are two ideologies. Our party is open to discussion. We have no dictators." Earlier, Congress partner and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said his party has "immense respect" for VD Savarkar. "We don't agree with what Rahul Gandhi has said. We respect Veer Savarkar. But, at the same time, when you are questioning us, the BJP should also have to say why they were they in power with PDP (in Jammu and Kashmir)," said Mr Thackeray, who's been accused of "ditching his father Bal Thackeray's Hindutva legacy" by allying with the Congress and NCP. "The PDP would never say 'Bharat mata ki jai'," he claimed.
