Just in: BJP ally Shiv Sena writes a letter to PM Narendra Modi demanding the Bharat Ratna be conferred on Veer Savarkar.


In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent on Monday, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party has called Savarkar a "staunch supporter for a Hindu India" and has requested Modi to undo the "injustice" done to his legacy by conferring a Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, on him.


"The nation wants that the Bharat Ratna ceremony be held at the historic Cellular Jail in Andaman and Nicobar Islands," the letter to Modi sent by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said. Savarkar was jailed by the British at the Cellular Jail, a sentence then known as Kaala Pani.


"Dear Prime Minister, the previous governments deliberately mocked the legacy of Savarkar, who was a supporter of a Hindu India and so persecuted for the same reason," the letter says, hoping Modi, who Raut describes as "a leader who considers Hindutva as Indianness", would heed to his appeal.