Ashoka threatens to start protest if Savarkar’s photo removed from Karnataka assembly

Bengaluru: Karnataka’s Leader of the Opposition (LoP), R Ashoka has threatened to go on protest if former politician Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s photograph is removed from the legislative assembly in Belagavi. Speaking to reporters, Ashoka alleged that the Congress administration intends to replace Savarkar’s image with that of the late former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Ashoka said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had previously installed Savarkar’s photo in the assembly since he was a patriot who endured imprisonment during the freedom movement. He accused the Congress of planning to remove it, asserting that the argument for placing Nehru’s photo instead is a form of glorifying hereditary politics. “They [Congress government] argue that the photo of the late former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru should be placed instead of Savarkar’s photo,” Ashoka said.

“The Congress government seems to prefer displaying only the photos of the grandfather, mother, son, and grandson in Karnataka. As the opposition, we will confront the ruling government and stage a protest,” Ashoka said, adding that the BJP would oppose the Congress government’s communal measures and the imposition of Tipu Sultan’s ideologies.

In 2022, during the winter session’s first day in December, the previous BJP government had unveiled Savarkar’s photograph in the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha. This move sparked protests from the Congress, who had opposed the inclusion of Savarkar’s image inside the Belagavi assembly. They also unveiled images included those of Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, BR Ambedkar, Swami Vivekananda, and Basavanna, with Nehru’s portrait omitted.

Ashoka also hinted that the BJP will fight it out against Congress’ minority appeasement through Tipu Sultan and denigrating Savarkar by replacing his portrait with Jawaharlal Nehru’s at Suvarna Vidhana Soudha. “Siddaramaiah, once removed from his chief minister post, may launch a party in the name of Tipu Sultan,” he added.

Responding to the controversy, Karnataka speaker UT Khader said that there is no proposal to remove the photo. “There is no such decision [to remove the photo] before the assembly. We will keep the people of the state apprised of any and every change at the assembly,” he said.