In the distant lecture halls of EIA University in Medelln, Colombia, Rahul Gandhi once again turned a global stage into a personal game of blunt darts when he thundered, the RSS harbours “cowardice at its heart,” accusing it of launching a “wholesale attack on Indian democracy.”

Beneath the rhetoric lurked an unspoken peeve: Veer Savarkar, the Hindutva icon whose contested legacy Rahul Gandhi has weaponised abroad before , and the Sangh Parivar. Though not named explicitly this time, the subtext screamed: cowardice, betrayal, British stooges, a freedom fighter who could barely fight.

Now, Savarkar may be a Hindutva icon, and a Maratha hero. But outside India, he is just a vague symbol of India's fractured polity. For years after Independence, Savarkar languished in the shadows, barely

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