The Congress on Wednesday, 16 October took potshots at the BJP for its demand to confer the Bharat Ratna on Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar and sought to know by the saffron outfit is not seeking the country's highest civilian award for Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse.
Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said the BJP-led government needs to seriously think about the path it wants to take on the issue in the 150th year of Mahatma Gandhi's birthday.
Addressing a press conference, he said Savarkar was tried (and later acquitted) in the Mahatma Gandhi assassination case and an inquiry commission had found that possibly the freedom fighter and some of his colleagues had prior knowledge of the plot.
Releasing its manifesto for the 21 October Maharashtra assembly elections on Tuesday, the state BJP raised the demand for Bharat Ratna for Savarkar along with 19th century social reformers Jyotiba Phule and his wife Savitribai Phule.