Bengaluru: Former Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Anant Kumar Hegde is in the news again for the wrong reasons, this time for attacking Mahatma Gandhi and calling the freedom struggle led by him a “drama”.

He also questioned as to how “such people” come to be called ‘Mahatma’ in India.

While addressing a public event in Bengaluru on Saturday, the Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada said the entire freedom movement was “staged with the consent and support of the British”.

“None of these so-called leaders were beaten up by the cops even once. Their independence movement was one big drama. It was staged by these leaders with the approval of the British. It was not a genuine fight. It was an adjustment freedom struggle,” he said.

The senior BJP leader also termed Mahatma Gandhi’s hunger strikes and satyagraha a “drama”.

“People supporting the Congress keep saying that India got independence because of the fast unto death and satyagraha. This is not true. The British did not leave the country because of satyagraha,” he said.

“Britishers gave independence out of frustration. My blood boils when I read history. Such people become Mahatma in our country,” Hegde said in his concluding statement.

Hegde has been in the news for controversial statements before: Hegde was the Union Government’s Skill Development Minister from 2014 to 2019. He came into the limelight in 2017 when he said that the BJP will change the constitution in which the word secular is written. Apart from this, he has also been in discussion for controversial remarks on Rahul Gandhi. He tweeted on Sunday that Bengaluru should become the capital of Hindutva and India should become the capital of Hindutva. He said that I will never hesitate to say this.