BENGALURU, 5 OCT

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

Tejas Gowda, the complainant, said 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 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.

Gowda challenged the minister to an open discussion on Savarkar. "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 2 October, during the launch of the Kannada version of ‘Gandhi's Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India’, 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." -ANI