Mumbai: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said that the Congress had never been against controversial Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar but was only opposed to his ideology.
To buttress his claim, Mr Singh recalled that then PM Indira Gandhi had published a postal stamp commemorating Savar-kar. “We are not in favour of the Hindutva ideology that Savarkar-ji patronised and stood for,” Singh said.
Mr Singh, who was attending a seminar on the Indian economy in the city, also hit back at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on the issue of nationalism.
“No other political party is as patriotic as the Congress. Therefore, no one should teach patriotism to the Congress,” he said. In its recently released manifesto, the BJP promised to award the Bharat Ratna to Savarkar, and social reformers Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule.
Congress MP Manish Tiwari had recently voiced his opposition to the promise and had taunted the BJP to give the highest civilian award to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse too. Commenting on Mr Tiwari’s comment, Mr Singh said, “A committee should be set up which will suggest the names for Bharat Ratna”.
While commenting on the abrogation of Article 370, Mr Singh said that his party never opposed the abrogation but only the procedure to remove the provision from the Constitution.
Mr Singh, while saying that the Congress does not need a certificate of patriotism from anyone, pointed out that it voted in favour of the abrogation of Article 370, but opposed the high-handed way in which it was done. Earning goodwill of the people of J&K was necessary before such a move, the former prime minister said.
