Court summons journalist for ‘defaming’ Savarkar
Move comes a year after Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s grand-nephew Ranjit filed a case alleging that a news weekly had defamed the freedom fighter.
wrote about Savarkar, he opined, gave his views. But this prominent magazine went a step ahead. The reporter produced false data and drew conclusion against Savarkar. Also, he should have sought our views before carrying the article. But he didn’t do so,” Ranjit Savarkar argued. The allegation was denied by Niranjan Takle, the journalist who wrote the piece. “I have not drawn any conclusions. I have not gone beyond anything. I have only reproduced what was written about him, and what I gathered from various archives,” he told The Sunday Guardian.
“Also, in the entire previous year, we haven’t received a single piece of paper or any legal notice. I came to know about this only when it was carried in the local media,” he added.
Responding to the allegation that he did not approach the family before carrying the article on Savarkar, Niranjan Takle said that he had gone to Savarkar Pratishthan thrice to meet Ranjit Savarkar. “Every time I went, I was told that he had gone to Murbad, and that he did not have a cell phone. As evidence of visiting the Pratishthan, I bought three books from there. I have the receipts with me,” he said. He also claimed that after writing the article, he wrote on his Facebook wall that he was willing to prove anything in his story in a court of law, if anyone had objections on it.
In his application filed before the court, Ranjit Savarkar has outright rejected allegations that V.D. Savarkar opposed the Tricolour national flag, that he propagated the two-nation theory, and that he did not serve the nation after his release from prison. According to the application, the article stated that after his release, Savarkar collaborated with the British and opposed Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Ranjit Savarkar has also said that though V.D. Savarkar wrote several applications to the British for his release, none of them had any apology.
“During his prolonged house arrest of 14 years at Ratnagiri, Savarkar was banned from political activity. So he directed his struggle against the social evils of the caste system and superstitions prevalent in orthodox Hindu society. In recognition and approbation of his single contribution to society in these 14 years, Karmaveer Bhaurao Shinde had remarked in his speech that ‘May God grant the remaining years of my lifespan to Savarkar’. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar had also remarked that ‘ I am happy that you are among the few people who believe in the eradication not just of untouchability, but of the caste system itself.’ As the detailed history of Savarkar’s immense struggle for eradication of untouchability is available to all, a detailed discussion of it is not merited. It is suffice to state that had Savarkar been a collaborator of the British, as alleged by Mr. Takle i.e Accused No. 1, numerous freedom fighters including Mahatma Gandhi would not have travelled all the way to Ratnagiri to meet Savarkar,” the application stated.
Ranjit Savarkar has further said in his application, “It is an irony of fate that such a brave, courageous, honest and great nationalist leader is openly defamed in a shameless manner by the accused persons without taking due care and examining authenticity of the so-called record maintained by them. The accused have deliberately distorted historical facts relating to the Late Shri Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and his freedom struggle. The accused persons have printed, published and sold the said defamatory article with malafide intention to create a hurdle in the process of award of the Bharat Ratna to Late Shri Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
“The Complainant states that Accused No. 1 under the garb of making research of the work of late Shri Vinayak D. Savarkar, wrote a defamatory article... indicating his personal views that late Vinayak D. Savarkar does not deserve Bharat Ratna.” In early January, soon after Akhilesh had taken over the Samajwadi Party from under his father, Mulayam Singh made a trip to Delhi to plead his case before the Election Commission. According to the local media, perhaps overtaken by a sense of nostalgia, an emotional CM decided to reach out to his father and had planned to receive Mulayam at the airport along with his wife Dimple. But the minute Akhilesh heard that his old bête-noir Amar Singh was also on the same flight as his father, he abandoned all such plans. Oh dear! Much is being made about the influence of the “wicked” Uncles in young Akhilesh’s life — from Shivpal Chacha (Uncle) to Amar Singh Uncle. But there is also the role of the benign Uncles. Everyone knows that it is yet another Uncle, Ram Gopal Yadav who has been propping up Akhilesh to take control of the party. It was also Ram Gopal Yadav, who had suggested that Akhilesh be made Chief Minister soon after the 2012 Assembly win. At the time, Mulayam was apparently in two minds, and according to some sources, had even deputed Azam Khan to propose his name at the party convention. Getting wind of this, Ram Gopal is said to have taken the mike and announced before all the delegates that now Azam Khan will propose Akhilesh’s name as the next Chief Minister, thereby leaving no room for speculation, or a conspiracy.
But there is also another Uncle who has had a much larger impact in shaping Akhilesh’s political career and that is the late Socialist leader Janeswar Mishra. It was Janeswar Mishra who pushed Akhilesh towards politics and promoted him within the party, down to accompany him when he filed his nominations for his first election, to ensuring he became state party president in 2009. The CM acknowledges his role and that is why almost all the projects undertaken by him go under the name of Janeswar Mishra Trust or Janeswar Mishra Park, and so on. Perhaps this is also one reason why Akhilesh found it much easier to rebel against his father with a clean conscience, because as Akhilesh’s supporters point out, politically, the father has not helped him as much as Janeswar Mishra did.