Defence minister Rajnath Singh has hailed Veer Savarkar as a “national icon”.
Hailing Savarkar as India’s first military strategist in the 20th century, Rajnath Singh said that Savarkar gave the country a “robust defence and diplomatic doctrine”.
Singh further accused the Left wing of “wrongly labelling Savarkar as a facist”.
“He was an icon. He was a freedom fighter and a nationalist. But people who follow Marxist and Leninist ideology accuse Savarkar of being a fascist,” Rajnath Singh said.
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“Lies were spread about Savarkar. It was spread that he filed many mercy petitions for seeking his release from jails. It was Mahatma Gandhi who asked him to file the mercy petitions,” the defence minister claimed.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh described Savarkar as a “national icon” at an event to release a book on him.