Speaker will decide, says Siddaramaiah on question of removing Savarkar's portrait in Assembly

Belagavi: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday said Speaker U T Khader will decide on removing the portrait of Hindu nationalist Veer Savarkar from the Assembly Hall of Suvarna Vidhana Soudha.

This came a day after Khader said that he would discuss installing the portrait of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the Assembly Hall.

“The Speaker will decide that,” Siddaramaiah told reporters to a question on removing Savarkar’s portrait.

Exactly a year ago, in December 2022, the then BJP government had installed the life-size portrait of Savarkar amid protests by the Congress. The portraits of Swami Vivekananda, Subhash Chandra Bose, B R Ambedkar, Basavanna, Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel were also unveiled by the then BJP government.

Siddaramaiah, who was then leader of the opposition, wrote to Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri urging him to install the portraits of personalities who had contributed to India’s “culture, tradition and development”.

He listed the names of Maharshi Valmiki, Basavanna, Kanakadasa, Shishunala Sharif, Narayana Guru, Ambedkar, Nehru, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Kuvempu and Vallabhbhai Patel. The Congress also frowned upon the inclusion of Patel’s portrait and the omission of Nehru's.