Mumbai (The Hindu): Bharatiya Janata Party activists on Sunday tried to burn an effigy of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi at Shivaji Park to protest his remarks on freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

Party workers threatened to agitate in front of the houses of the Congress MLAs in Mumbai unless they failed to apologise for Mr Gandhi’s remarks.

Savarkar was sentenced to jail in the Andaman for participating in the freedom movement.

However, in recent times some articles have claimed that he apologised to the then British government to come out of jail. Mr Gandhi, while speaking in Lok Sabha earlier this month, had touched upon the issue, to which the BJP has taken objection.

Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam ridiculed the BJP saying the party should concentrate on handling issues such as Deonar dumping ground, which is hurting the health of Mumbaikars, instead of protesting outside the houses of the Congress MLAs.

Earlier, the Mumbai unit of the BJP held a protest meeting outside the Savarkar memorial in Dadar claiming that the Congress has insulted the people of India by speaking against the freedom fighter.

“By questioning the patriotism of Savarkar, the Congress has insulted the nationalists in the country. It must apologise. It supports those who raise anti-national slogans and insults a patriot like Savarkar. We will not let this happen,” said Ashish Shelar, BJP MLA and Mumbai chief of the party.

“The BJP must decide whether they are in power or opposition. Their focus is on igniting emotional issues, instead of solving peoples’ problems. Has anyone seen a BJP MLA protesting for farmers in the state? If they cannot handle power, they should give it up as soon as possible,” said Mr Nirupam.