'Even Mahatma Gandhi wrote such letters...': Devendra Fadnavis on Rahul Gandhi's letter remark on Savarkar

Ahmedabad: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's remarks on Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar have triggered a row in Maharashtra. Reacting to Gandhi's remarks, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said letters cited by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi while making critical remarks against freedom fighter VD Savarkar were common during the British rule and even Mahatma Gandhi used to write such missives. Fadnavis, a star-campaigner of the Bhartiya Janta Party, while addressing a rally in Gujarat's Bhavnagar, slammed the Congress MP, saying he is fond of insulting national heroes except those belonging to the Gandhi-Nehru family.

Addressing a press conference during his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Maharashtra on Thursday, Gandhi showed a paper to the media persons, claiming it was a letter written by Veer Savarkar to the British. He reiterated that Savarkar had helped the Britishers.

Also Read: 'Can cause strife in MVA': Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Rahul Gandhi's Savarkar remark

"Whatever Rahul Gandhi said was childish. The kind letters he is showing...I want to tell him that Mahatma Gandhiji had also written such letters. People have published them, too. He always insults our respected national figures except those from the Gandhi-Nehru family," said Fadnavis in his address at the campaign rally for the BJP in Gujarat. 

आज गुजरात येथे प्रचारासाठी आलो आहे. भाजपासाठी अत्यंत सकारात्मक वातावरण आहे. मा. पंतप्रधान नरेंद्रजी मोदी यांची one-sided लहर आहे. भाजपाचा अभूतपूर्व विजय निश्चित आहे!
आणि राहुल गांधी जे काही महाराष्ट्रात येऊन बोलत आहेत, ते केवळ attention seeking साठी आहे !
तळाजा, भावनगर#BJP pic.twitter.com/jBaokZ9Mhn — Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) November 18, 2022

"He does not believe in Savarkar, or Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose or Sardar Patel. Instead, he always tries to defame them," alleged the BJP leader. 

Union Cabinet minister Anurag Thakur, who was in Surat district to canvas for local BJP candidates ahead of the December 1 polls, also slammed Gandhi and the Congress over the Savarkar issue, saying the Opposition party and its leaders will never be able to look beyond one family.

"Earlier, he used to talk about Hindu terrorism and also went to the JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi) to express support for those who wished to break India into pieces. Now, he is criticising Savarkar," said Thakur in his address at a rally in Surat.

Voting to elect a new 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases -- December 1 and 5 -- and ballots will be counted on December 8.

(With PTI inputs)