My name is not Savarkar, Gandhi doesn't offer apology to anyone: Rahul Gandhi

Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi (PTI)

”My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi and Gandhi does not offer an apology to anyone,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday responding to a query on repeated calls by the BJP seeking his apology over various issues.

The former Congress chief made the remarks while addressing a press conference after being disqualified from Lok Sabha. Asked what he thinks about calls from the BJP seeking his apology for allegedly seeking foreign intervention and whether he could have regretted his remarks in court for which he has been convicted for defamation, he said, ”Rahul Gandhi thinks my name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi, Gandhi does not offer apology to anyone.”

Gandhi has often targeted late Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar, saying that he helped the British rulers and wrote a mercy petition to them out of fear. At the presser, he said that he had made appeals that he be allowed to speak in Parliament but was not given permission. ”Wrote to the Speaker twice, then went to him personally and said ’you are the protector of democracy, allow me to speak’, he smiles and says ’I can’t do it’.

If you cannot do it, who can do it, I may have to go to Modi ji then but he will not allow me to speak,” Gandhi said. ”So, my point is that, democracy is finished in this country, people cannot speak what is on their minds, institutions in this country are being attacked and the mechanism of that attack is the relationship between Narendra Modi and Adani,” the Congress leader said.

In his remarks at the presser, Gandhi said he will keep asking questions on the Adani issue. ”Ministers lied about me that I called for foreign intervention (abroad), I did not do so,” Gandhi said. Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after a court in Gujarat’s Surat convicted him in a 2019 defamation case.

The disqualification from Lok Sabha will bar Gandhi (52), a four-time MP, from contesting polls for eight years unless a higher court stays his conviction.