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Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa inaugurated the ‘Veer Savarkar’ flyover in Bengaluru on Tuesday. The inauguration of the 400-meter long flyover built on Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan Road in Yelahanka in the city was held three months after it was postponed in May. The flyover has been named after Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
The inauguration ceremony was held at 12:30 pm on Tuesday with Yediyurappa marking the occasion by the customary cutting of ribbons. He was accompanied by Yelahanka MLA SR Vishwanath, Tourism Minister CT Ravi, and Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
According to sources, the inauguration was held this week since it was on the agenda of BJP councillors to get the name changed before September 10 when the term of the BBMP council ends.
It was held despite opposition raised by Congress and JD(S) in the state. “Savarkar’s name finalized for Yelahanka flyover The JD(S) party opposes naming it after a person who has nothing to do with Karnataka,” the JD(S) said in a tweet.
The regional party called the BJP’s decision to name the flyover after Savarkar as ‘anti-state’. A JD(S) spokesperson said that the party’s Bengaluru youth wing president Praveen Kumar was detained by police ahead of the inauguration ceremony.
Earlier, the flyover was set to be inaugurated on May 28, the birth anniversary of Veer Savarkar. This was postponed a day before the event and Yelahanka MLA SR Vishwanath cited a delay in issuing the necessary gazette notification for the postponement.
The delay came after the Leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister Sidaramaiah claimed that naming the flyover after Savarkar was an insult to freedom fighters from Karnataka who took part in the independence movement.
While the BJP counts on his contribution to India’s freedom movement and describes him as a ‘patriot’, Congress and other opposition parties criticise him for his alleged link to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin.
Source: NM
