This is not the first time such a demand has been raised; the first time it came up was during the Atal Bihari government.
In the recently concluded Assembly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party started a new debate by stating in its election manifesto in Maharashtra that it would raise the demand to award Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour in the country, to the controversial Hindutva icon VD Savarkar. This is not the first time such a demand has been raised; the first time it came up was during the Atal Bihari government.
In this episode of Itihas Ke Panne (Pages from History), Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay talks about the pandora’s box that can be opened by this demand