On Tuesday, the Udupi Municipal body announced its decision to name the circle near the District Court in the city as ‘Veer Savarkar Circle’. This is days after Udupi MLA Raghupati Bhat wrote to the city municipality and demanded to rename a circle near the District Court in the name of Veer Savarkar.
According to the reports, the Council of the Udupi Municipal Body unanimously passed an order stating that there will be a circle near the District Court which will be named after Veer Savarkar. Reportedly, there were no protests registered from the opposition political parties including Congress in the given case. The decision has also been welcomed by the BJP in the city.
#BreakingNews | #Udupi Municipal body gives a green signal to the demand made by Udupi MLA Raghupati Bhat for a #Savarkar circle near District court@sprakashbjp and @RahulEaswar with views@harishupadhya shares details with @AnushaSoni23 pic.twitter.com/fLcJwOXQYC
— News18 (@CNNnews18) August 30, 2022
The Udupi Municipal Body is governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Earlier the issue of installing the statue of Savarkar at Brahmagiri Circle had become prominent as Hindu leader Yashpal Suvarna had appealed to the city municipality to install a statue of Savarkar at Brahmagiri Circle.
Also, banners of Veer Savarkar were put up by Hindu Mahasabha leaders at Brahmagiri Circle in Udupi on August 15. Suvarna also had garlanded the flex and had hoisted two saffron flags next to it. The Police however had removed the flags saying that there was no permission granted for the event.
The pressure on the city municipality had further mounted after several Hindu organizations including the Hindu Maha Sabha and Hindu Jagarana Vedike also started appealing for the establishment of a statue of Veer Savarkar. The Hindu leaders had then announced that they would install Savarkar’s statue at the spot of the banner put up at the Brahmagiri Circle in Udupi.
The matter of placing the banner of Veer Savarkar was also opposed by the SDPI who had said that they were against the ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and slogans related to it being written on the banner. SDPI Udupi district vice-president Shahid Ali had noted that SDPI had no issues with Veer Savarkar or any other freedom fighter, but it is opposed to the ‘oppressive and regressive captions and slogans’ that were being raised then.
However, MLA Raghupati Bhat on August 23 opined that it was better to rename a circle as Savarkar circle than to install the idol. “It is not right to install the statue. If someone vandalizes the statue, it will create controversy. I have written a letter to the city municipality to rename the circle Savarkar circle. I will propose this in the next session of the city municipality. Definitely, the Veer Savarkar circle will be formed in Udupi. In addition, we will make an Ambedkar circle also”, he had said.
Bhat then also had raised the issue of hijab and said that the CFI had deliberately escalated the issue. He had said that it was CFI who had started the hijab controversy. He also stated that CFI would be held responsible if any girl student is deprived of education due to hijab row.
