The Congress leader and Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said that the Savarkar was a meat-eater and consumed beef, too.
He further went ahead to say that Savarkar did not oppose the slaughter of cows, adding that he publicly propagated the act of cow slaughter.
Congress leader and Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao stirred a controversy with his remark over the late freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar about being a non-vegetarian and not being against cow slaughter.
During an event in Bengaluru to mark Gandhi Jayanti, Dinesh Gundu Rao claimed Savarkar was not only a meat eater who consumed beef but also propagated it publicly.
The Congress minister assured support that Savarkar was a Brahmin, but he did not follow food taboos as a Brahmin was expected to do some decades ago and was a modernist.
Dinesh Gundu Rao said, “Savarkar was a Brahmin, but he ate beef and was a non-vegetarian. He did not oppose cow slaughter; in fact, he was quite a modernist on that topic.”
The minister further contrasted Savarkar’s views with those of Mahatma Gandhi, asserting that while Savarkar’s ideology was fundamental, Gandhi’s was steeped in democracy.
“Gandhi was a strict vegetarian with a deep belief in Hindu cultural conservatism. He was a democratic person in his approach,” Dinesh Gundu Rao said, pointing out a very sharp difference between the two ideologies.
Rao furthered that, unlike Savarkar, Gandhi’s actions were characterized by “tolerance and inclusion.”
Dinesh Gundu Rao further commented on Muhammad Ali Jinnah, whom he said represented another extreme. Rao said, “Jinnah was never a hard-core Islamist, with some claiming that he even ate pork.”
Gundu Rao said, “Jinnah became an icon for Muslims. He was never a fundamentalist, but Savarkar was.
