On December 12, 2025, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Union Home Minister Amit Shah unveiled a statue of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar at Beodnabad in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The duo also attended a function at BR Ambedkar Institute of Technology (DBRAIT) in Sri Vijaya Puram, where a song on Savarkar was released. These events commemorated 116 years of Savarkar's poem ‘Sagara Pran Talmalala’ which means “My soul is in torment”. Savarkar was imprisoned by the British at Port Blair, now called Sri Vijaya Puram, in 1911. Speaking at the statue unveiling, Mohan Bhagwat said, “The Andaman Islands have been the home of two great people — ‘Veer’ Savarkar and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.” He praised Savarkar for defining India as a 'Hindu Rashtra', saying, “Savarkar has not just named India as a Hindu nation but also explained the reason for it. He called India as ‘Hindu Rashtra’ as this is the land of the Indus, the land of Pitribhumi (homeland) and the land of Hindus, which is sacred.” Bhagwat added, “All the people who made efforts for the country’s independence between 1857 to 1947, and all those who gave their lives, are like a galaxy. The brightest star in that galaxy is Veer Savarkar.” Amit Shah called Savarkar “the most vocal proponent of the collective identity that emerges from Indian cultural values, tradition, and history.” He said, “The British always tried to impose the mindset of slavery on Indians. They named the 1857 agitation as revolution, but Savarkar renamed it freedom struggle and advanced Indian spirit. His book written on it was banned even before it was published and this was the first book to meet this fate. He defined the 1857 agitation as India’s first freedom struggle in this book.” Shah also noted, “The title of ‘Veer’ (heroic) was not bestowed upon ‘Veer Savarkar’ by any government, but by the people of the country which reflects his acceptance.”