Savarkar's Grandnephew Tells Court Gandhi Called Him 'Extreme Hater of Muslims'

PUNE — Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar's grandnephew, Satyaki Savarkar, told a special court on Tuesday that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi portrayed Savarkar as an "extreme hater of Muslims" in a 2023 speech in London, according to testimony in a defamation case filed by Satyaki.

During cross-examination, Gandhi's lawyer, Milind Pawar, asked Satyaki to identify the exact words in Gandhi's speech that allegedly harmed Savarkar's reputation. Satyaki cited Gandhi's statement that "Savarkar had written in a book that he and five to six friends had assaulted a Muslim youth and derived pleasure from the act."

"By these words, Savarkar was portrayed as an extreme hater of Muslims and as a mob lyncher. Savarkar never hated Muslims. Rather, in his writings, he showed the ways and means for their progress," Satyaki claimed.

Satyaki alleged that Gandhi falsely attributed the account of an assault on a Muslim youth to Savarkar, maintaining that no such incident appears in the Hindutva ideologue's writings.

During the same proceedings, Pawar submitted a 2004 video interview of Satyaki's grandfather, Gopal Godse, along with its transcript. Gopal Godse, the younger brother of Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse and a co-conspirator in the assassination, purportedly acknowledged in the interview that Nathuram was an RSS member.

The defamation case stems from Gandhi's alleged remarks made in London in 2023. The court proceedings are ongoing.