New Delhi: A day after Rajnath Singh claimed that Hindutva icon Vinayak Damodar Savarkar wrote mercy petitions to the British regime on Mahatma Gandhi's request, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday slammed the Union Defence Minister and alleged that soon the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will declare Savarkar as the "father of the nation."
"They (BJP) are presenting distorted history. If this continues, they will remove Mahatma Gandhi and make Savarkar, who was accused of the murder of Mahatma Gandhi and was pronounced complicit in the inquiry of Justice Jeevan Lal Kapur, as the father of the nation," Owaisi said while speaking to news agency ANI.
The Hyderabad MP's remarks came after Singh said that Savarkar filed mercy petition with the British regime during his imprisonment in Andaman jail on the suggestion of Mahatma Gandhi, but people who follow the Marxist and Leninist ideology are the ones who accuse him of being a fascist.
While speaking at an event to release a book on Savarkar, Singh described him as a "national icon" and also said that lies were spread about Savarkar repeatedly.
Singh said this while speaking at an event to release a book on Savarkar named: Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition.
Even Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, who was also present at the event, echoed similar sentiments about Savarkar.
Bhagwat said that Savarkar's ideology of Hindutva never suggested differentiating between people on the basis of their culture and methodology of worshipping the god.
Meanwhile, reacting to Owaisi's remarks, the grandson of Savarkar - Ranjit Savarkar said that he does not think of Mahatma Gandhi as the father of the nation.
"Country like India cannot have one father of the nation, there are thousands who have been forgotten," he told ANI.