BJP asks Anant Kumar Hegde to apologise for criticising Mahatma Gandhi
NEW DELHI : The Bharatiya Janata Party’s top leadership has asked its parliamentarian Anant Kumar Hegde to tender an unconditional apology over his earlier remarks attacking Mahatma Gandhi.
. The former Union Minister from Karnataka had made several derogatory comments on Gandhi’s role at a public meeting on the weekend and commented that his “blood boiled” that “such people came to be called Mahatma”.
“People supporting Congress keep saying that India got independence because of the fast unto death and satyagraha. This is not true. The British did not leave the country because of satyagraha. Britishers gave independence out of frustration. My blood boils when I read history. Such people become Mahatma in our country,” he had railed.
Sources say the BJP’s top leadership is upset with Mr Hegde, a serial offender, and has berated him, telling him that his comments are unacceptable. BJP sources told that Hegde, MP from Karnataka was told in strictest terms that any inappropriate remarks on Gandhi won’t be tolerated.
Hegde had controversially questioned the freedom movement led by the Father of the nation, and described India’s independence struggle as an “adjustment” with the then British rulers. The entire freedom movement was “staged with the consent and support of the British”, Mr Hegde had said on Saturday at a public event in Bengaluru.
“None of these so-called leaders were beaten up by the cops even once. Their independence movement was one big drama. It was staged by these leaders with the approval of the British. It was not a genuine fight. It was an adjustment freedom struggle,” the six-time MP had said.
Freedom fighters who did not sacrifice anything made the country believe that it attained independence through ‘Upavas Satyagrah’, Gandhi’s preferred mode of agitation, and became Mahapurush (great person), was quoted as saying in media reports.
In his address in Kannada, the MP said: “There were two types of freedom fighters, one which believed in Shastra (arms) and another in Shaastra (intellectual motivators). There was also another category of freedom fighters which used to ask the British how to carry out the freedom struggle,” Hegde said at the event to remember VD Savarkar.
“We will abide by whatever you say simply adjustment and understanding…. like 20-20 (cricket match),” the Uttara Kannada MP said about the freedom movement. Hegde alleged that the third category of freedom fighters had pleaded with the British to recognise their freedom struggle and requested that they be imprisoned.
“They (pleaded with the British) It’s enough if you properly take care of us, nothing more than that.” Freedom fighters who did not sacrifice anything made the country believe that India attained independence through ‘Upavas Satyagrah’, he said, adding that the British were ‘frightened’ and gifted the nation freedom.
“Such people became Mahapurush (great people) Those who sacrificed their lives and worked towards big change in the country were dumped in the dark corners of history, but those who fought in adjustment with the British became freedom fighters with certificate…..
This is the tragedy of the country,” Hegde, known for his past controversial remarks on issues like secularism, said. Meanwhile,Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Tushar Gandhi tweeted: “Hegde is correct in saying Bapu’s Freedom Fight was a drama. It was so intense that it opened the eyes of the British to their immoral colonisation and enslavement of India.”
(With Agency Inputs ).
