Ahead of the beginning of the winter session in the Karnataka Assembly on Monday, Veer Savarkar's portrait was unveiled in the assembly hall and Congress staged a sit-in protest outside the assembly. Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Assembly, Siddaramaiah even wrote to the Speaker urging him to unveil other freedom fighters' portraits alongside Savarkar.
Responding to the protests, Karnataka Education Minister BC Nagesh said that it was unfortunate that the Congress don't want the truth to come out. Stating that Congress hid the historic truths that happened during freedom movement, he said Congress doesn't want to project nationalism among legislatures or people.
"Congress doesn't want to project nationalism among legislatures or people. Even when we revised textbook and brought some freedom fighters into it, they did the same. They don't want truth to come out. They hid historic truths that happened during freedom movement and even after that," the minister said as quoted by news agency ANI.
"Unfortunate! Whenever we want to put idealism before people via people like Vivekananda, SC Bose, Savarkar, Mahatma Gandhi, they oppose. These people dedicated their life to country&they don't want their pics," he added.
Amid decade-old border tensions between Maharashtra and Karnataka, on Monday, several of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders staged protests near Kognoli Toll Plaza near the Karnataka-Maharashtra border.
The border issue originated when the states were divided based on linguistic lines under the State Reorganization Act in 1956. During the state reorganisation process, Belgaum and surrounding villages were included in the Mysore Princely state despite the region dominated by Marathi-speaking people. That's how the Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue originated.