Bengaluru:

A Bajrang Dal leader and activist filed a complaint on Friday against Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao for his controversial remarks on Veer Savarkar.

Tejas Gowda, the complainant, stated that the health minister should be more cautious with his language in public.

“He holds a responsible position as the health minister, and whenever he addresses the media or speaks in public, he should be careful. His recent statement about Veer Savarkar was inappropriate. He claimed that Savarkar, despite being a Brahmin, consumed beef. I would like to ask Dinesh Gundu Rao: Do you have any proof that Savarkar consumed beef? Or, I ask directly, did Veer Savarkar appear in your dreams and admit it?” he said.

Mr Gowda further challenged the minister to an open discussion on Savarkar. “I challenge Gundu Rao to set a date, place, and time for a public discussion on this matter. We are ready to discuss this openly instead of allowing such false allegations and rumours about Savarkar to spread. I urge you to focus on your portfolio and the health of the people,” he added.

On October 2, during the launch of the Kannada version of Gandhi’s Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India, Dinesh Gundu Rao 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, “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 spoke about Nathuram Godse. Speaking to ANI, he said, “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.”

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