A VD Savarkar picture on a banner of freedom fighters put up at Athani near Chengamanad in Ernakulam District as part of the Congress party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi ran into a controversy on Wednesday. The party leadership intervened and tried to hide the Savarkar photograph with a picture of Mahatma Gandhi, but the damage was already done as a video of the Savarkar picture being replaced went viral.
According to reports, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) Chengamanad Mandalam President Suresh has been suspended in this regard.
The video of Savarkar picture being replaced by that of Mahatma was shared by Nilambur MLA PV Anvar, who won the election with the support of the Left Democratic Front (LDF). “When called out over VD Savarkar's photo appearing on Bharat Jodo Yatra’s banner, the Muslim Leage tried to spread the narrative that it was from Karnataka, where the BJP had installed the poster for Independence Day celebrations. But the poster is from Kerala, not from Karnataka. The Congress has corrected its mistake by covering Savarkar's image with that of Mahatma Gandhi’s,” the MLA wrote on Facebook.
Ernakulam DCC President Mohammed Shiyas told Media One that the error happened because an ordinary party worker had downloaded a set of images from the Internet while creating a banner of freedom fighters. Shiyas said they did not remove the entire banner considering the money spent on it.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Jairam Ramesh while reacting to the incident said: “It is ironic that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) should be asking this question because the party allied with the forces of Hindutva to install Mr VP Singh as the Prime Minister in December of 1989. It was an alliance of the CPI(M) and the BJP which ensured that VP Singh replaced Rajiv Gandhi as the Prime Minister.”
Recently, a similar controversy had erupted when the umbrellas exhibited in Kerala’s Thrissur Pooram were printed with Savarkar’s pictures.
(With IANS inputs)