Mumbai: Devendra Fadnavis, the Maharashtra Leader of Opposition, compared the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to a Babri-like edifice and vowed he would not rest till it was demolished.
“I will not rest till I bring down the Babri-like structure of your power,” Mr Fadnavis said.
He chanted Hanuman Chalisa along with other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers at the party’s Mahasankalp Sabha in Mumbai.
“We just chanted Hanuman Chalisa. Would Balasaheb Thackeray have ever thought that reading Hanuman Chalisa during his son’s reign would be treason and that visiting the grave of Aurangzeb would be a state etiquette?” said Mr Fadnavis.
Describing Uddhav Thackeray’s rally as a “laughter show” Mr Fadnavis said,”they (Shiv Sena) had a rally yesterday which they called a master sabha but when we were listening to them, it was more like a laughter sabha… Yesterday, it was Kaurava sabha and today it is Pandav sabha”.
In a verbal attack on All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi, he said, “Asaduddin Owaisi goes and pays tribute to Aurangzeb on his grave and you keep seeing that, you should feel ashamed of it. Listen to me Owaisi, even a dog will not pee on the identity of Aurangzeb. Saffron will rule in Hindustan.”
The state’s political environment has been sparked by a dispute over Hanuman Chalisa and Azaan.
After declaring that they will recite Hanuman Chalisa outside Uddhav Thackeray’s residence in Bandra, Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana were arrested by Mumbai police and booked under Sections 124A (sedition) and 153A (promoting hatred between different communities) of the Indian Penal Code.
Following the Hanuman Chalisa controversy, the BJP has come out in support of the Ranas.
The loudspeakers controversy began when MNS head Raj Thackeray gave the Maharashtra government till May 3 to remove loudspeakers from mosques, failing which MNS workers would play Hanuman Chalisa over loudspeakers, he warned.
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