The first day of the winter session of the Karnataka legislature began with a controversy, as the opposition Congress launched vehement protests against the BJP government's decision to install Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar's portrait in the Assembly hall. On Monday, December 19, as the winter session of the Assembly began at Belagavi's Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri unveiled Savarkar’s portrait in the presence of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, ministers JC Madhu Swamy, Govind Karjol and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders. Savarkar’s image was unveiled in the Assembly hall behind the Speaker's seat, along with portraits of Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, BR Ambedkar, Swami Vivekananda and Basavanna. Protests were led against the move by Congress leader and former CM Siddaramaiah, who questioned the need for having the “controversial personality”'s portrait in the Assembly hall, referring to Savarkar.
Congress leaders protested on the steps of the Assembly building in Belagavi, holding up images of Jawaharlal Nehru and other nationalist leaders and freedom fighters. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar alleged that the BJP had unveiled Savarkar’s portrait to deliberately stir controversy and deflect attention from other serious issues pertaining to the state. "They want us to disrupt the Assembly and protest. They know we are going to raise issues of corruption in the session so they are trying to cause trouble by putting up the Savarkar portrait, without consulting the opposition," DK Shivakumar, said.
Siddaramaiah has written to the Speaker to also put up portraits of other personalities, such as poets and reformers from the Karnataka region like Kanaka Dasa, and leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Jagjivan Ram and others.
Meanwhile, commenting on the issue, BJP Minister Govind Karjol said that Savarkar is a “respected personality” who has “fought for the country.” “We will put up photos of many other leaders including Basavanna and Babasaheb Ambedkar,” the minister said, dismissing the protests by Congress.
BJP in Karnataka had started awareness programmes on Savarkar from August 2022. BJP said the unveiling of Savarkar’s portrait in the Assembly is a part of this awareness campaign.
VD Savarkar was a Hindutva ideologue who wrote a book titled 'Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?', published initially as 'Essentials of Hindutva'. After being released from the Andaman prison in 1924, he received criticism for not joining the Indian Freedom Movement. He was also accused of plotting the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi but the court cleared the allegations due to lack of evidence.