BJP says Rahul Gandhi insulted his grandmother with remarks on Savarkar

Senior BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said in Mumbai on Sunday night that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had insulted his grandmother, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, through his comments on V. D. Savarkar, and that the country would not forgive him even if he apologised.

The march

Hussain spoke at the Savarkar memorial at Shivaji Park in Dadar, where a Mumbai BJP march from Borivali, 28 km away, ended. The march started at 4 pm and was joined by city BJP chief Mangal Prabhat Lodha, MPs Gopal Shetty and Manoj Kotak, Borivali MLA Sunil Rane and many party workers, who shouted slogans against Rahul Gandhi and in praise of Savarkar.

The row

Rahul Gandhi had set off a political storm at a rally in Delhi on Saturday by saying his name was Rahul Gandhi and not “Rahul Savarkar”, and that he would never apologise for telling the truth. He made the remark while turning down the BJP’s demand for an apology over his comment about rape in India.

Earlier on Sunday, Hussain told reporters at the BJP office that Indira Gandhi had honoured Savarkar’s legacy. He said that in 1970 her government released a stamp commemorating Savarkar, that she gave Rs 11,000 of her own money to the Savarkar Trust, and that she asked the Films Division to make a documentary on him, which she personally cleared in 1983. He also cited a 1980 letter she wrote for Savarkar’s birth centenary in which, Hussain claimed, she called him a remarkable son of India.

Message to the Shiv Sena

Hussain also told the Shiv Sena, once an ally of the BJP and now leading a Maharashtra coalition with the Congress and the NCP, that it must decide whether it valued power or Savarkar more. “Just tweeting a protest against Gandhi’s insult of Savarkar will not do,” he said, adding that Uddhav Thackeray had to decide whether to keep sharing power with the Congress.

The Sena voted for the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha but walked out when it was put to vote in the Rajya Sabha, apparently after its ally the Congress expressed displeasure. The amended law opens the way to citizenship for refugees who are not Muslims and who fled religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh.

See also: BJP and Congress

Originally published on 16 December 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us