Pinarayi Vijayan Slams Prime Minister Modi for Glorifying RSS and Savarkar on Independence Day

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M) Politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan has strongly criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union Government for a deliberate attempt to distort the history of India’s freedom struggle by glorifying the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—one of the world’s oldest and largest fascist paramilitary organisations—and figures associated with it, particularly V.D. Savarkar.

In a strongly-worded statement, Vijayan said the attempt to credit the RSS—an organisation banned after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination—and Savarkar, who faced trial in the conspiracy, as contributors to the freedom movement amounted to “historical denial.” He called such moves a “disgrace” to the memory of those who genuinely fought for India’s independence.

He accused the Prime Minister of demeaning the sanctity of the day by using it to praise what he described as a “communal organisation steeped in divisive politics.” Statement also referred to a controversial Independence Day greeting card issued by the Union Ministry of Petroleum, which featured Savarkar prominently above Mahatma Gandhi.

The statement highlighted the RSS’s absence from the national movement and noted that the organisation “chose the role of an outsider” while Indians from diverse backgrounds united to fight British rule. Vijayan said the RSS had actively opposed the ideological foundations of the freedom struggle, particularly the inclusive nationalism championed by the Indian National Congress.

Citing an editorial from the RSS mouthpiece Organizer published on 26 November 1949—the day the Constituent Assembly adopted the Indian Constitution—Vijayan stated that the RSS rejected the Constitution in favour of the Manusmriti, a highly problematic Hindu text.

He also took aim at Savarkar, who led the Hindu Mahasabha and sought clemency from British authorities during his incarceration. “It is this very Savarkar whom the Sangh Parivar now parades as a leader of the freedom struggle in place of Mahatma Gandhi,” the statement read.

Vijayan accused the Sangh Parivar of attempting to “fabricate false narratives” to claim credit for the freedom struggle while simultaneously erasing the memory of true martyrs like those of the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising and the Waggon Tragedy.

Taking further aim at the BJP’s decision to mark August 14 as "Partition Horrors Remembrance Day," Vijayan said, “Those who claim to mourn partition have shown little genuine regard for Independence Day itself.”

Calling the RSS an organisation that "carries the burden of hatred, communalism, and riots," the Chief Minister urged the nation to resist any move to “bury the history of human compassion and solidarity and replace it with hatred.”

“The memory of Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, and countless martyrs cannot be equated with such forces,” Vijayan asserted, adding that the nation must remain united to preserve the true legacy of India’s freedom struggle.