JOIN USA fresh controversy has broken out in Goa, over Tuesday’s unveiling of a portrait of former Hindu Mahasabha president Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the precincts of the State Secretariat complex.
After Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday said that “some people” had forgotten about the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader’s contribution to the Indian freedom struggle, the Congress on Wednesday hit back, saying unveiling Savarkar’s portrait was an insult to indigenous freedom fighters from Goa, who had participated in the state’s freedom struggle against Portuguese colonial rule.
“This amounts to undermining the importance of the contributions of Goan freedom fighters in their struggle against the colonial Portuguese,” Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar told Deccan Herald.
He also said that Sawant and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government was trying to “foist” saffron ideologues on the state.
“The unveiling of Savarkar’s portrait is an attempt to foist their ideologues on the people of Goa. There are so many Goan freedom fighters who deserve an official portrait of their own for their courage and bravery during Goa’s freedom struggle,” Kavlekar said.
Goa attained liberation from 451 years of Portuguese rule in 1961, more than a decade after India's independence, when the Indian armed forces marched into Portuguese-held Goa, following which the region was incorporated into the Indian Union.
On Tuesday, after unveiling the portrait, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had said that Savarkar’s contribution to Indian freedom struggle is immense and that people had started to forget his efforts to free India.
"We have unveiled a portrait of Veer Savarkar so that his deeds during the freedom movement should reach the youngsters of today. His contribution to the freedom struggle should reach people. The tortures endured by Veer Savarkar during the freedom struggle and in the Andaman prison appear to have been forgotten by some," Sawant had said.
"We just installed a portrait. The new generation should learn from these leaders. They will not be able to forget them by looking at the portraits again and again," he also said.