New Delhi: Shiv Sena takes a dig on the NDA government by saying that it has put up pictures of Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder DeendayalUpadhyaya in offices and buildings across the country, but had no space for Savarkar. Shiv Sena parliamentarian Sanjay Raut said if the BJP-led NDA dispensation at the Centre had "pure Hindu blood" in its veins, it should confer the Bharat Ratna on late Hindutva icon V D Savarkar.

"This current government should announce the Bharat Ratna for Savarkar, if it has pure Hindu blood in it... Otherwise it (the government) should declare that its Hindutva is only for politics," Raut said in an article in 'Utsav', a supplement that appears with the Sunday edition of party mouthpiece 'Saamana'. The Shiv Sena is a constituent of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Raut said the demand for the removal of portraits of Savarkar from offices by some organisations, a move that followed a row over Pakistan founder Mohammah Ali Jinnah's portrait at Aligarh Muslim University, was itself a victory for the Hindutva icon. "It is saddening that just because there is a demand to remove Jinnah's portrait (from a hall at AMU), some Muslim organisations now want Savarkar's portraits to be removed. Those who support Jinnah despise Savarkar," Raut wrote. "Then the only question that remains is when will Savarkar get the Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award," Raut wondered.

The Jinnah portrait issue, he said, was "a conspiracy being hatched to polarise society" before the 2019 general election. "During the Congress regime, there was an overdose of pseudo-secularism. Hope a similar pattern does not get repeated with pseudo-Hinduism," he said. He said issues revolving around Pakistan, Jinnah and Savarkar surfaced every time a major election drew close.