Lies are being spread, Gandhi asked Savarkar to file a mercy plea: Rajnath Singh during book launch

Was Savarkar really guilty of writing mercy petitions to the British and for sympathising with the colonisers? Noting that there have been "deliberate attempts to defame" the late Hindu Mahasabha activist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said that it was upon Mahatma Gandhi's request that Savarkar wrote mercy petitions to the British.

Speaking at the launch of the book Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition authored by Uday Mahurkar and Chirayu Pandit, Singh said, "Lies were spread about Savarkar. Time and again, it was said that he filed mercy petitions before the British government seeking his release from jail."

"He was an icon of Indian history and will remain so. There can be differences of opinions about him but to look down on him as inferior is not appropriate and justifiable. He was a freedom fighter and staunch nationalist, but people who follow the Marxist and Leninist ideology are the ones who accuse Savarkar of being a fascist,” Singh said, adding, "It was Mahatma Gandhi who asked him to file mercy petitions," he added.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Union Ministers Gen VK Singh (retd), Jitendra Singh, Parshottam Rupala and Arjun Ram Meghwal were among those present at the event.