BJP desperate to rewrite history: Cong

Accusing the BJP-led Centre of using every "auspicious" occasion as a "political tool", Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi Sunday said the saffron party was "desperate to rewrite history".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday said a national award in the name of Subhash Chandra Bose would be given every year to those police personnel who did "exemplary work" in the rescue-and-relief operations during any kind of disasters.

The announcement came on the 75th anniversary of Bose's declaration of the formation of India's first independent government -- the Azad Hind government -- on October 21, 1943.

"A desperate BJP is trying to rewrite history and create an imagined rivalry between Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru and between Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Nehru. It has used auspicious occasions for these cheap political tricks," Singhvi told a press conference.

He said Patel, in his letter to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, had stated that the "activities of the Hindu Mahasabha were a clear threat to the existence of the government and the activities had not died down, despite the ban".

"On the other hand, the RSS's mentor, (Vinayak Damodar) Savarkar's Hindu Mahasabha, was advocating people to get recruited in the British army. RSS leader (MS) Golwalkar had called the necessity of throwing the British out of the country 'shallow nationalism'," the Congress leader said.

He also pointed out that Nehru was one of the lawyers of Bose during his INA trials.

"Was there any person from the RSS to support Netaji?," Singhvi asked.

"Why does Prime Minister Modi use every auspicious occasion as a political tool? The prime minister and the BJP are desperately trying to appropriate every national legacy," he said.