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Savarkar wasn't against beef-eating, begged the British Viceroy for favours and told lies about Gandhi and Bose, he also didn't want a democratic India: Arun Shourie, to Karan Thapar for The Wire.
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In an interview to discuss his forthcoming book on Veer Savarkar called ‘The New Icon: Savarkar and the Facts’, Arun Shourie reveals details about Savarkar that will shock and enrage his followers whilst possibly pleasantly surprising his critics. Arun Shourie’s book establishes that Savarkar was not a cow-worshiper and wasn’t against beef-eating or even offended by beef-eating. Savarkar lied about Subhas Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi, claiming that he had advised the former to escape from India, form the Indian National Army and declare complete independence for Hindustan and asserting that “Gandhi ji and myself lived together as friends” in London in 1908, when Gandhi wasn’t even in the city at that time. The book says Savarkar also “begged” Lord Linlithgow, the British Viceroy, to induct the Hindu Mahasabha into the Viceroy’s Executive Council and the War Council and was happy to accept Dominion Status at a time when Congress was demanding complete independence.
In a 45-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Arun Shourie, a former BJP minister, editor, columnist and scholar, also reveals that Savarkar was an apologist and an admirer of Adolf Hitler. As he puts it: “The more Hitler seems unstoppable, the more news about what is being done to the Jews in Germany comes out, the more fulsome does Savarkar’s acclaim become - for Germany, in particular for Hitler, most of all for what is being done to the Jews … that is the way to weld a nation, that is how we should treat the Muslims.”
Quoting from Savarkar himself, Arun Shourie established that Savarkar did not believe democracy was suitable for India. Savarkar said: “In India where the voters are ignorant and do not know whom to vote (for) and the elected representatives are also selfish … I would not recommend democracy. I would support any other form of government that would suit the interests of the Hindu nation … I would not mind if we have a one-man government, so long as he makes India strong and powerful.”
In his book Arun Shourie debunks the claim that Savarkar heroically escaped from the porthole of a ship in Marseilles in 1910. This was a myth propagated in a book which Shourie believes was pseudonymously written by Savarkar himself (The Life of Barrister Savarkar) and later extolled by people like Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The truth is whilst he did escape from captivity it was nowhere near as heroic as we have been subsequently led to believe.
I will stop there. I have only given you the main headline points made in the interview. For further details you must see the interview yourself.
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