The Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar ordered the removal of Swatantryaveer Savarkar's plaque at the Cellular Jail memorial in Andaman and also said that he wanted the Port Blair airport, which is currently named after the father figure of Indian Freedom struggle who spent 12 years of his life in "Kalapani", to be renamed.
Aiyar, whose only interest seems to be earning points for himself in the eyes of the party supremo by showing disrespect to the Father of Hindutva, appears to have no knowledge of history. Looking at India's freedom struggle from the skewed perspective of the Congress, Aiyar fails to see that Savarkar was the only freedom fighter who had been sentenced to two life imprisonments in Andaman's cellular jail, the infamous "Kalapani" for his revolutionary activities and had stayed there the longest. His name on the plaque and the airport is most relevant and appropriate. That Savarkar was the founder of Hindu Mahasabha, spoke of Hindu unity and propagated the ideology of Hindutva cannot disqualify him from being given the credit and respect which he rightly deserves.
