BJP will soon declare Savarkar as 'father of nation': Owaisi

Hyderabad (Telangana): Hitting out at Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's remarks on Veer Savarkar, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday said that the BJP will soon declare the late Hindutva ideologue as 'the father of the nation'.

Speaking to ANI, Mr Owaisi said: "They (BJP) are presenting distorted history. If this continues, they will remove Mahatma Gandhi and make Savarkar, who was accused of the murder of Mahatma Gandhi and was pronounced complicit in the inquiry of Justice Jeevan Lal Kapur, as the father of the nation."

On Tuesday, Singh had said that Savarkar wrote mercy petitions to the British on Mahatma Gandhi's request and that people from the Marxist and Leninist ideology wrongly accuse him of a fascist.

Savarkar filed for mercy to British on Gandhi's advice: Rajnath Singh

He also hailed Savarkar as a staunch nationalist and India's first military strategist in the 20th century.

He was speaking at the launch of the book 'Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition'.

"Lies were spread about Savarkar. Time and again, it was said that he filed mercy petitions before the British government seeking his release from jail. It was Mahatma Gandhi who asked him to file mercy petitions," Mr Singh said at the event.