February 25, 2003

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

No Portrait of Savarkar in Parliament

The decision to place  a portrait of V.D. Savarkar in the Central Hall of Parliament is condemnable.   It is a gross insult to the Indian Republic and what it stands for as embodied in the Constitution. Though the ruling circles would like the people to forget it, history cannot be erased.  V.D. Savarkar was one of the main accused in the murder case of Gandhiji.  He was held responsible by the Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice Jivanlal Kapur. Justice Kapur's report concluded: "All these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group." (cited in A.G. Noorani's Savarkar and Hindutva)

The then Union Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel also held the same view. In a letter to Prime Minister Nehru on February 27, 1948, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stated: "It was a fanatical  wing of  the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that hatched the conspiracy and saw it through." (Quoted from Darga Das: Sardar Patel's Correspondence by A.G. Noorani).  It was only the lack of independent  corroboration of the approver's evidence which led to his acquittal.  To unveil a portrait of Savarkar in Parliament  is to honour the mentor and close associate of Nathu Ram Godse, the connection between the two being well-known. 

The Hindutva advocated by Savarkar refused to acknowledge as Indians those who were born in India  and practiced religions which  originated outside such as Islam and Christianity. 

 The Polit  Bureau of the CPI(M) demands that  the portrait of such a personality whose views and actions were inimical to the spirit of the secular-democratic Republic be not placed in Parliament.