Several workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) barged into the Congress’s Pune city headquarters on Friday and attempted to blacken the photographs of party leader Rahul Gandhi to protest against his remarks on late Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar.
The protesters shouted slogans against Gandhi and stuck posters with the message Mafiveer (mercy seeker) Jawaharlal Nehru on the walls of Congress Bhavan, an official from Shivaji Nagar police said.
We detained 10 to 15 workers from the premises of Congress Bhavan, inspector Arvind Mane said. One of the members of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the BJP’s youth wing, said they came to the Congress Bhavan to condemn Gandhi’s remarks against Savarkar. We doubt if Gandhi knows the Congress’ history because late prime minister Indira Gandhi had given ‘sanmaan patra’ (citation) to Savarkar, he said.
The Congress leader had also earlier said that Savarkar was a symbol of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). His remarks have triggered protests. Meanwhile, the Pune police registered an offence against two Congress workers after they wrote maafiveer on a board at Savarkar’s memorial in Swargate area on Friday.