Savarkar never hated muslims, Rahul Gandhi portrayed him as extreme hater: Grandnephew

Satyaki Savarkar, grandnephew of V D Savarkar, told a Pune court that the Hindutva ideologue never hated Muslims and promoted their progress. He alleged Rahul Gandhi’s 2023 London remarks falsely portrayed Savarkar as an extreme Muslim-hater in a defamation case

Pune: Satyaki Savarkar, the grandnephew of V D Savarkar, on Tuesday told a special court here that the Hindutva ideologue “never hated Muslims” and his writings showed ways for their progress, but Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made statements that portrayed him as an “extreme hater of Muslims”. Savarkar made the statement while being cross-examined by advocate Milind Pawar, in a defamation case involving Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s alleged statements in London in 2023.

During the cross-examination, advocate Pawar asked Satyaki Savarkar to state the exact words from the alleged speech of Rahul Gandhi which “lower the reputation of Swatantryaveer Savarkar”. Satyaki Savarkar recounted Gandhi’s statement that ‘Savarkar had written in a book that he and five to six friends had assaulted a Muslim youth and derived pleasure from the act’.

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“By these words, Savarkar was portrayed as an extreme hater of Muslims and as a mob lyncher. Savarkar never hated Muslims. Rather, in his writings, he showed the ways and means for their progress,” he said.

Advocate Pawar also submitted Satyaki’s grandfather Gopal Godse’s video interview of 2004 and its transcripts in which Godse is purportedly acknowledging that his brother Nathuram Godse was an RSS member.

Gopal Godse, the younger brother of Nathuram, was also a co-conspirator in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. The criminal defamation case against Gandhi was filed by Satyaki alleging that the Congress leader had falsely claimed that V D Savarkar had written in a book about how he and his friends had assaulted a Muslim youth and derived pleasure from the act. The complainant has maintained that no such incident appears in Savarkar’s writings.