GANDHI REFERS TO SAVARKAR WHILE ATTACKING THE SANGH IDEOLOGY

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a sharp attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), asserting that India faces a battle between constitutional values and those who prefer Manusmriti as the governing law as he cited Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's criticism of the Indian Constitution.

- Saubhadra Chatterji

Speaking as Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Gandhi cited Savarkar as having said: "The worst thing about the Constitution of India is that there is nothing Indian about it. Manusmriti is that scripture which is most worshippable after Vedas for our Hindu nation and from which our ancient times have become the basis for our culture, customs, thought and practice" as he held up copies of both documents.

The reference to Savarkar was aimed at sharpening the attack on the Sangh ideology, but was also seen as being tricky for its alliance in Maharashtra, where the Congress, NCP (SP) and the Shiv Sena (UBT) were defeated in assembly polls last month. Savarkar is revered by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena.

Gandhi cited the Hindutva ideologue to draw a line between what he called two competing visions for India.

"There is a battle taking place today in India. On this side, we have defenders of the idea of the Constitution. From each state we have one. From Tamil Nadu we have Periyar, from Maharashtra we have Jyotiba Phule, from Gujarat we have Gandhi," he said, adding that while the BJP praises these figures "hesitatingly," they actually want India "to be run the way it used to be run earlier".