Veer Savarkar thought of nothing other than India’s independence: Amit Shah

New Delhi, Nov 23: Union Home Minister, Amit Shah said that Veer Savarkar was a freedom fighter and a major reformer. He made the comments during an interview with Republic Media Network.

Savarkar spent his entire life fighting for his motherland, religion and languages. None making a comment like Rahul Gandhi did is unfortunate and unacceptable, Shah said in the interview with the network's edit-in-chief, Arnab Goswami.

Speaking about the elections in Gujarat, Shah said that he was confident that the BJP will win the state with more seats than its record breaking 127 in the 2002 elections. He also rejected reports that the Aam Aadmi Party of the Congress are the BJP's main rivals in the state.

Gujaratis will not accept the freebies that Arvind Kejriwal has been promising. On The Hindu card being played by the AAP, Shah said that they can play any card. The people of the country and Gujarat are not so naive that they will sway towards any side by one or two statements.

In politics everyone has a history and credibility depends on that basis. What kind of things do you say. What is your ideology and what are your ideological goals. What have you done to achieve them? For instance the BJP was created out of the Bharatiya Jana Sang. We have all the while that we will remove Article 370 whenever we get the chance, Shah also said.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we abrogated Article 370 when we got full majority. He also said that Kashmir will be associated with India forever. This is how credentials are created, the Home Minister also said. He also said that the party had taken the initiative on Uniform Civil Code (UCC). In three states, the BJP government has taken the initiative for the same. A decision in regard in more states will be taken in the near future, Shah also said. We had promised this in 1950, he added.

Speaking about the remarks on Savarkar, he said that it does not befit anyone to make such statements. Veer Savarkar thought of nothing apart from India's independence. He faced so much torture for this. If the British ever banned a book for the first time it was The Indian War of Independence 1857 written by Veer Savarkar, Shah further added.

On security related matters, the Home Minister said that the policy they follow is zero tolerance towards terror. No one should have a doubt about this. We made the UAPA more stringent and we have enacted amendments in the NIA Act to extend the scope of the agency to probe cases overseas. The NIA has also been given the right to declare an individual a terrorist besides an outfit, he added.