Need to understand 'real motive' behind Bapu's murder: Gandhi's kin amid talk of Bharat Ratna to Savarkar

Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, on Friday stressed on the need to understand the "real motive" behind the latter's murder even as BJP pushes to confer Bharat Ratna on Hindu ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar who was accused of killing Bapu.

Savarkar faced trial in connection with Gandhi's murder but was acquitted in the case.

"I think it is important that we understand the real objective and conspiracy behind Bapu's murder, at a time when the patron of Bapu's murder is considered to be given Bharat Ratna," Tushar said at an event here.

Responding to right-wingers arguments that Savarkar was acquitted in the case, he said the court had not "pronounce him innocent".

"Savarkar may have been acquitted in the case, but the Court did not pronounce him innocent. The court only said that we've not had enough evidence presented to us to prove his guilt beyond doubt," he said.

He further said, "We must remember this while Sanghis (RSS workers) contemplate giving him Bharat Ratna."

In its mfesto for Maharashtra Assembly elections, the BJP had promised to confer the Bharat Ratna on Savarkar.

During an election rally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hailed the Hindutva ideologue, saying that it was his values that nationalism has been put at the core of nation-building.

Home Minister Amit Shah last week credited Savarkar with calling the 1857 rebellion as the "First War of Indian Independence". "Had it not been for Veer Savarkar, the rebellion of 1857 would not have become history, we would have seen it from the point of view of British. Veer Savarkar was the one who named the 1857 rebellion as the first independence struggle," he had said.

( With inputs from ANI )