Three NSUI workers arrested for ‘blackening’ Veer Savarkar flyover signboard in Bengaluru

PTI, May 28, 2024, 7:48 PM IST

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Three NSUI workers were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly blackening the signboard of a flyover named after Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar, at Yelahanka here, police said. The incident took place on the birth anniversary of Savarkar.

According to the police, a group of activists of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the students’ wing of the Congress party, staged a protest demanding that the flyover be renamed.

They allegedly blackened Sarvarkar’s name on the board and put up a banner bearing the name ‘Bhagat Singh flyover’ and also raised the slogans ‘Inquilab Zindabad’, holding up Bhagat Singh’s pictures. ”They had put black paint on the board. We have registered a case under the Prevention of Destruction and Loss of Public Property Act and have arrested three people. They were wearing scarfs of NSUI,” a senior police officer said. The board was restored later, he said. The flyover was named after Savarkar when BJP was in power amid opposition from certain sections, including the Congress.

R Ashoka, Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly slammed the ruling Congress following the incident. Posting on social media platform X, he alleged, ”While Veer Savarkar’s photo adorned @RahulGandhi ‘s Bharat Jodo yatra in Karnataka, @INCKarnataka and its affiliates continue to denigrate Veer Savarkar by defacing the signboard of Veer Savarkar flyover in Bengaluru.

”Congress has long abandoned the values of Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar who had admired Veer Savarkar, but what about Indira Gandhi, one of their own, who too hailed Veer Savarkar as a great revolutionary? ”Has CM @siddaramaiah and DCM @DKShivakumar given up on Indira Gandhi too just because it doesn’t suit their narrow and bigoted vote bank politics?”