Bharat Jodo poster sees VD Savarkar among freedom fighters, Congress says 'printing mistake'

The Congress said that it was left to firefight a major gaffe on Day 14 of their ambitious rally, the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The top leadership of the party has joined grassroots-level workers to walk shoulder-to-shoulder. However, as their rally reached Kerala’s Ernakulum district, the party was faced with a blunder it had not anticipated, it said.

A poster of the yatra had a photo of VD Savarkar in a line-up with other freedom fighters. However, the Congress has never considered Savarkar to be one, claiming that he only apologised to the British instead of fighting them.

The 'faux pas' was noticed by Kerala’s Independent MLA PV Anwar, supported by the LDF. Anwar posted a video on social media platform Facebook, saying that the boards kept in Chengamanad as part of the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra has a photo of Savarkar. The workers later covered it with a picture of Mahatma



Gandhi, he further wrote.

“When pointed out that VD Savarkar's photo was on the Bharat Jodo Yatra’s poster in Aluva, the Muslim League's narrative was that the poster is from Karnataka, where the BJP had installed the poster during the Independence Day celebrations. But the poster is from Kerala, not from Karnataka. The Congress has rectified its mistake by covering Savarkar's image with that of Mahatma Gandhi’s,” the MLA wrote.

Soon, Congress clarified.

“It was a printing mistake,” the grand old party said.

The brief to the printers was to put together a poster with photos of freedom fighters. They went online and made the posters with what was available without cross checking, the party said.

Once the mistake was noticed, the local workers tried to cover it with Mahatma Gandhi’s photo, it added.