Maharashtra BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar was "not just a person but a thought" which will never lose its relevance.
Fadnavis' reaction came hours after Yuva Sena president and state cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray said that one should not dwell on the past.
Aaditya was reacting to Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut's statement that those opposing the Bharat Ratna award for Savarkar should be made to spend two days in the Andaman Cellular Jail, the erstwhile colonial prison, where the freedom fighter had been lodged during his incarceration.
"The great swatyantraveer Savarkar is not just a person but he is a thought, and that thought can never be the history. It will continue to be our present as well as future," the former chief minister told reporters.