"Deliberate Attempts To Defame Savarkar, Real Target Was...": RSS Chief

Noting that there had been a "deliberate attempts to defame" Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Tuesday that "the real target wasn't a person but India's nationalism".

Speaking at the launch of the book 'Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition', Mr Bhagwat said that Sarvarkar had thought it necessary to expound on Hindutva considering the situation of the time.

The book has been written by Uday Mahurkar and Chirayu Pandit.

Mohan Bhagwat cited RSS ideologue P Parameswaran who had said that after "defaming" Savarkar, the next on target will be Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayanand Saraswati and Yogi Arvind as they were pioneers of nationalism in India and it is from their thoughts that Savarkar drew his inspiration from.

Mr Bhagwat said that there was a deliberate attempt to defame Savarkar. "But real target wasn't a person but India's nationalism. So, if everyone is united, many will be out of jobs," he said.

"It is our responsibility to keep our motherland united," he added.

"Yogi Arvind had said that eventually, Akhand Bharat will come into being. Ram Manohar Lohia too dreamt about Akhand Bharat," he said and referred to Hinduism as a force of unity.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Ministers Gen VK Singh (retd), Jitendra Singh, Parshottam Rupala and Arjun Ram Meghwal were among those present at the event.

Mohan Bhagwat said Britishers knew that they had to "divide and rule" for their survival and plundered the wealth of the nation. "This was the experience Savarkar got in Andamans prison," he said.

"Differences of opinion are natural to us. Yet we walk together, this is our nationalism," Mr Bhagwat said.

He said that despite differences in their views, Savarkar was concerned about Mahatma Gandhi's health.

"Those who don't understand this are still running the campaign to malign him. Gandhi and Savarkar were totally opposite but they both shared one quality of being committed soldiers of the country," Mr Bhagwat said.