Mumbai: In a move that has raised eyebrows, the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that it would strive to honour Hindutva icon Vinayak Damodar Savarkar with a Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award.
In its election manifesto, released by BJP working president J.P. Nadda, the state unit said that efforts would be made to ensure that Savarkar will be honoured with Bharat Ratna along with social reformers Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule.
This is perhaps for the first time that any political party has promised to offer a ‘Bharat Ratna’ award in its manifesto.
The state party will ask the NDA government at the Centre to confer the Bharat Ratna on Savarkar, Mahatma Phule and Savitribai Phule, reads the manifesto.
Savarkar (1883-1966), an Indian independence activist, po-litician, lawyer, writ-er and the formulator of the Hindutva philosophy, is consider-ed to be an inspiration of several BJP leaders, including party president Amit Shah.
Convicted for abetting the murder of the Nashik collector and waging a conspiracy against the king and sentenced to 50-year imprisonment in 1911.
