Tilak’s kin in bid to head Savarkar Smarak
MUMBAI: Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, one of India’s foremost freedom fighters, was an abiding influence on revolutionary-turned-hindutva ideologue, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
This Sunday, though, the descendants of Tilak and Savarkar will battle it out for control of the Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak or Swatantryaveer Savarkar National Memorial at Dadar in central Mumbai. The memorial is the nerve-centre of Savarkarites.
The memorial’s president has a one-year tenure. Its memberfor ship is limited to Savarkarites (applications are vetted by existing members, and only those that are loyal to Savarkar’s ideology are approved), and is controlled by 11 trustees, who are also part of a 21-member working committee. There are provisions to co-opt up to five members on the working committee.
Close to 400 members of the trust will vote by secret ballot on December 26.
Deepak Tilak, the greatgrandson of the Lokmanya, will fight for the president’s post; and Ranjit Savarkar, the grandson of Savarkar’s younger brother Dr Narayanrao aka Bal, and his associates, have fielded former state director general of police (DGP) Praveen Dixit.
Located opposite Shivaji Park at Dadar, the memorial is spread over 6,650 sq m (1.65 acres), of land, and has a library, exhibits and conducts classes activities such as martial arts. The land was granted by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the early 1970s, and the first phase was thrown open in 1989, with the second phase inaugurated in 2003.
Deepak said poor management has led to the memorial’s weak financial position. “The management of the Smarak is poor... its financial health has collapsed,” he said, adding that he had written to the members of the institution in the past about these issues. He said that Congress leaders had also played a role in the development of the institution and had donated to it.