Uddhav Thackeray had drawn ‘Savarkar Rekha’ for Gandhis at 10 Janpath Meeting in 2020

Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray’s quick and public rebuttal of ally and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of VD Savarkar on Thursday didn’t come as a surprise to some senior Sena and Congress leaders. When the then Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray visited the then Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at her 10, Janpath official residence here in early 2020, he had clearly pointed to the Gandhis a line the Sena’s sensitivity on Savarkar and had forewarned that the Sena leadership would be constrained to go public, alliance or no alliance, to counter Rahul Gandhi if he had persisted with his criticism of the Hindutva icon whom Sena reveres.

As Rahul, after a period of lull, renewed his criticism of Savarkar on Thursday, Thackeray just walked the talk he had done before the Gandhis, some Sena insiders told ET. Others who were present during the Gandhi Thackerey meeting included the then AICC general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra (and now party chief) Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Sena leaders Aaditya Thackeray and Sanjay Raut. Sena leaders in know of the matter said while Rahul was not present at that meeting due to his prescheduled engagements elsewhere, his mother had promised the Sena leaders to convey to him their point on Savarkar. The Sena leaders noticed that Rahul had averted his usual criticism of Savarkar for some time until his remarks on Thursday.

It is learnt during the otherwise “pleasant meeting” at 10 Janpath, which also marked the first Gandhis-Thackeray meeting here after MVA was formed and the Sena-NCP Congress MVA government in Maharashtra was installed, the participants exchanged pleasantries and briefly discussed the shared political necessities to strengthen the MVA coalition against the BJP. Then Thackery was learnt to have stressed before the Gandhis that it would be politically fruitful to all the concerned to strengthen the shared coalition political and administrative priorities and close ranks against the rivals and that it would be better to skirt potential coalition faultlines.


Thackeray, it is learnt, had told Gandhi that he and the entire Shiv Sena always held Savarkar in high esteem, as an ‘inspiring and heroic’ Hindutva icon and freedom fighter.

Thackeray also told the Gandhis a large section of people in Maharashtra, cutting across political lines, held Savarkar in high esteem, and therefore, Rahul Gandhi’s (then) public criticism of Savarkar lacked “a broader informed perspective” of Savarkar, it suffered from a “flawed understanding” of the Maharashtrian political/social realities and thus was in conflict with the Sena’s sensitivities and the MVA’s cohesiveness. While urging Gandhi to convey this to her son, the Sena leaders had also said that recurrence of such criticism of Savarkar Rahul would lead to public rebuttal from the Sena leadership.

There are now indications that the Sena side may back up Thackeray’s counter with more admiring comments on Savarkar. “Instead of mouthing these silly bits that some nonpolitical speech writers may have tutored him, Rahul should have done some homework at least on his grandmother’s (Indira Gandhi) views of Savarkar and on why she, as the PM, brought out a stamp on Savarkar. If anybody in the Congress now thinks they are more political, ideological, patriotic, secular and nationalist than Indira ji was, then just look at the state of the Congress party now,” said aMVA leader who didn't wish to be identified.

Rahul’s latest comment on Savarkar, ironically, came when the Congress side had renewed efforts to get Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar to share a stage with him at a Bharat Jodo Yatra-connected rally this week, after the duo skipped the Rahul-led yatra’s Maharashtra entry function earlier and, instead had deputed Aaditya Thackeray and Supriya Sule to do the honours.