New Delhi: While a host of saffron leaders paid tributes to Veer Savarkar on his 52nd death anniversary, National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) ally Telugu Desam Party’s (TD) leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu apparently deleted a tweet he had posted earlier, paying tribute to Savarkar on Monday.
According to screenshots shared on Twitter, the TD chief’s Twitter handle was shown with the tweet “Humble tributes to the legendary freedom fighter, Veer Savarkarji, on his death anniversary”.
The tweet was seen at around 7 am on Monday. Soon after, the tweet was unavailable. The buzz is that the tweet was deleted in the wake of strained relationships between the TD and the BJP. Also, Savarkar is considered as a controversial figure by many but is held in high esteem by the BJP.
Savarkar is credited for coining the term “Hindutva” and had endorsed a “Hindu Rashtra.” While the Bharatiya Janata Party considers Veer Savarkar as a freedom fighter, many other political parties have the opinion that he has not done much for the Independence movement.
Congress had earlier cited that Savarkar had not supported Gandhiji’s Quit India Movement. But the BJP and the RSS argue that Savarkar was jailed by the Britishers, proving that he has fought for India’s independence.
Savarkar was released from prison by the Britishers in 1921. The Congress uses this fact to say that he wasn’t a freedom fighter unlike Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev. Many BJP leaders had paid rich tributes to Veer Savarkar on Monday.
While the Telugu Desam is part of the ruling alliance at the Centre, the Andhra Pradesh’s ruling party is under pressure from the Opposition,
which had been criticising it for not getting the Centre deliver the promises made as per the AP Re-organisation Act.
The state will go to polls simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections next year and the issue could be used by the Opposition to take on the TD.
Though the TD has been taking a tough stand and had even sided with the Opposition on the Triple Talaq Bill issue, political observers feel that it was only a posturing by the regional party.
The regional party had also expressed ‘disappointment’ over the Union Budget which did not allocate any funds for the state.
