Union home minister Amit Shah frowned upon Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s ‘secular’ jibe against CM Uddhav Thackeray, saying he should have been restrained in the choice of words he used in the letter. “I have gone through the letter. He has made a passing reference. However, I also feel that he should have been more restrained in the choice of his words,” Shah said in a TV interview.
Shah had been asked about the letter Koshyari wrote to Thackeray objecting to the continuing closure of places of worship in Maharashtra when the state government had allowed commercial establishments to open.
‘Maha should have given SSR case to CBI at the outset’
In the interview, Shah said the Maharashtra government’s handling of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death created room for misgivings and suspicion. Responding to a question, he said the state government could have nipped the controversy by handing over the matter to CBI right at the outset. “After all, doubts were being raised from the very first day,” he said.
Asked about the controversy leading to a Bihar versus Maharashtra fight, he said it was the SC which assigned the case to CBI, adding that he did not know how the sudden death of the promising talent from Bihar was going to play out in elections. He further said there should be a fair and neutral probe in any such case. “It is not just true of the Sushant Singh case, all instances of unnatural death should be probed carefully and with sensitivity,” he added.
Asked about drug use, Shah said it’s a menace that should be eliminated as fast as possible.
Maha guv taunts CM
In a sharp escalation of tensions, Maharashtra governor wrote a sarcasm-laden letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray stating “it was ironical” that shrines were still shut while bars and restaurants had been allowed to reopen in the state and asked if Uddhav, “a strong votary of Hindutva”, had “turned secular”.
Uddhav hit back within hours to say he did not need a certificate of Hindutva from Koshyari and, in an indirect reference to actor Kangana Ranaut, added that “giving a rousing welcome to a person who described Mumbai as PoK does not fit into my definition of Hindutva”. Koshyari’s letter requesting Thackeray to “announce forthwith the reopening of all places of worship” came on a day the BJP launched a statewide agitation to press for reopening. Koshyari said, “I wonder if you are receiving any divine premonition to keep postponing the reopening of the places of worship time and again or have you suddenly turned secular yourselves, the term you hated.” To which, Thackeray in a written reply said, “Why has this question come to your mind? Do you feel that merely opening of temples means Hindutva and not opening means secular? ”
“The governor must have personal experience of divine premonition. I have absolutely no idea, I am not that big. I am studying what’s happening in other states and trying to implement what is better for Maharashtra,” the CM added.
Relations between the governor and the Thackeray-led coalition government of Sena, NCP and Congress have been fraught right from the beginning when Koshyari swore in BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as CM unannounced at 8 am on November 23 last year, only to be forced three days later to invite Uddhav to form government.
“You have been a strong votary of Hindutva, you had publicly espoused your devotion for Lord Rama by visiting Ayodhya after taking charge as CM, you had visited the Vitthal Rukmini Mandir in Pandharpur and performed the puja on Ashadhi Ekadishi,” Koshyari said in his letter.
In response, Thackeray said Koshyari had correctly referred to his Hindutva, but he did not need a certificate of Hindutva from the governor, nor was he required to learn it from anyone. “My definition of Hindutva is very clear. Neither my state nor the state capital will give a rousing welcome to a person who described Mumbai as PoK. It does not fit into my Hindutva,” Thackeray retorted.
Ranaut had called on the governor after parts of her bungalow in Bandra were demolished by the BMC on September 9 alleging illegal alterations. The demolition had come after the actor criticised the MVA government over the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
