BENGALURU: A Bajrang Dal leader and activist, Tejas Gowda, filed a complaint on Friday against Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao for his controversial comments about Veer Savarkar.
Gowda criticized the minister for his public remarks and urged him to be more cautious with his language given his official position. “As the Health Minister, Dinesh Gundu Rao holds a responsible role and should be careful when addressing the media or speaking in public. His recent statements about Veer Savarkar were inappropriate. He claimed that Savarkar, despite being a Brahmin, consumed beef. I want to ask Dinesh Gundu Rao: Do you have any proof that Savarkar ate beef? Or did Veer Savarkar appear in your dreams and admit it?” Gowda stated.
He further challenged the minister to an open debate on the matter. “I challenge Dinesh Gundu Rao to set a date, place, and time for a public discussion on this issue. We are ready to engage openly rather than allowing false allegations and rumors about Savarkar to spread. I urge you to focus on your responsibilities and the health of the people,” he added.
The controversy arose from remarks made by Dinesh Gundu Rao on October 2 during the launch of the Kannada version of “Gandhi’s Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India.” The minister said, “Savarkar was not opposed to cow slaughter. He was a Chitpavan Brahmin but a non-vegetarian. In that sense, he was a modernist. While his thinking was fundamentalist in some ways, he was also modern. Some even say he ate beef, but certainly, as a Brahmin, he consumed meat and openly advocated for it.”
He continued by drawing comparisons between historical figures: “Gandhi was a vegetarian and deeply believed in Hinduism, but his actions were different. He was a democratic person. Jinnah was a devout Islamist who drank wine and, according to some, ate pork. Yet, he became a Muslim icon. He wasn’t a fundamentalist, but Savarkar was. Jinnah compromised his philosophy for political power, while Savarkar remained a fundamentalist.”
The minister also commented on Nathuram Godse, saying, “Someone like Godse, who assassinated Gandhi, was a fundamentalist because he believed he was doing the right thing. This is the danger of fundamentalism—even when committing heinous crimes, you believe you are justified. That is the issue.”
