Mumbai: Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) sent a blistering letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting permission to read the Hanuman Chalisa and perform Namaz outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence. The prank was clearly retaliation for a similar threat made against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray by an MP-MLA pair.
Fahmida Hassan Khan claimed she wanted to read the Namaz, Hanuman Chalisa, Durga Chalisa, Namokar Mantra and more outside PM Modi’s official residence at Delhi’s Lok Kalyan Marg.
Ms Khan said that she recites the Hanuman Chalisa and does Durga Puja at her home.
“But the way inflation and unemployment are increasing in the country, it has become necessary to wake up the Prime Minister of the country, Narendra Modi… if Ravi Rana and Navneet Rana can enjoy the benefit of reading Hanuman Chalisa outside Matoshree [Uddhav Thackeray’s residence], we should be allowed to go to PM Modi’s residence in Delhi to offer Namaz, Hanuman Chalisa and Durga Chalisa,” she said.
A Mumbai court sentenced independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana to 14 days in judicial prison on Sunday, a day after they were arrested in connection with their plan to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Mr Thackeray’s home.
The court sent the politician couple in judicial remand, rejecting the city police’s demand for their custody, an official said.
While Navneet Rana will be sent to the Byculla women’s jail, her husband will be taken to the Arthur Road jail, the official said.
Meanwhile, 13 Shiv Sena workers were arrested on Sunday for allegedly protesting outside the Khar residence of the Ranas the previous day. The party workers were later released on bail, police said.
Ravi Rana, a Badnera MLA, and his wife, Navneet Rana, a Maharashtra MP, were arrested by city police on Saturday evening for allegedly “promoting hatred amongst different communities.”
Following a day-long demonstration by Shiv Sena members outside their home, the couple decided to cancel their plan to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Uddhav Thackeray’s home.
The Hanuman Chalisa and Azaan controversy erupted in Maharashtra earlier this month, just ahead of elections for India’s richest municipal body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation or BMC, with the BJP and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) raising the issue to target the ruling Shiv Sena.
Following a call to arms by Raj Thackeray at a rally in Mumbai on the occasion of the Marathi New Year festival Gudi Padwa, BJP and MNS members in several districts of Maharashtra began playing the Hanuman Chalisa over loudspeakers.
A BJP official in the state even volunteered to fund loudspeakers so that the Hanuman Chalisa could be played in public.
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