Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had made the announcement last month.

Mumbai:

Continuing with the Eknath Shinde-led government’s Hindutva push, the Maharashtra cabinet has decided to name the Versova Bandra Sea Link Veer Savarkar Setu.

Chief Minister Shinde had made this announcement on May 28, the 140th birth anniversary of the Hindutva ideologue, and had also said that the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) will be named Atal Bihari Vajpayee Smruti Nhava Sheva Atal Setu. Both these names were cleared by the cabinet today.

The 17-km Versova Bandra Sea Link, which is part of the coastal road project, will connect Andheri to the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. The MTHL will connect Mumbai and Navi Mumbai and its construction is likely to be completed in December. 

Veer Savarkar has been at the centre of several controversies recently, including within the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra. Less than two weeks ago, the Congress government in Karnataka had approved the revision of Kannada and Social Science textbooks of classes 6 to 10 by removing chapters on Veer Savarkar and RSS founder K B Hedgewar, among others.

In March, after his disqualification as Member of Parliament after being convicted for his ‘Modi surname remark, Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi had said, “My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi and Gandhi does not offer an apology to anyone.”

This had invited a scathing reply from Congress ally Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, who had warned of “cracks” in the opposition alliance if Mr Gandhi continued to demean Savarkar. “Veer Savarkar is our God, and any disrespect towards him will not be tolerated. We are prepared to fight, but insulting our Gods is not something we will tolerate,” the Mr Thackeray had said.