The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena, who were once allies, are now at loggerheads with the Hanuman Chalisa row deepening the rift. The Maharashtra government held an all-party meeting to resolve the issue that has been causing much chaos in the state.
Home minister for the Maharashtra government Dilip Walse Patil had called for an all-party meeting to resolve the issue, but, the BJP didn't attend the meeting. Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray reportedly skipped the meeting too. Raj Thackeray wasn't present at the meet either.
Maharashtra's Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray told ANI, "It was decided in the meeting that a delegation will meet the Central government and hold discussions over a solution to this problem (loudspeaker row in the state)."
BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, in the meantime, hit out at the Maharashtra government. He told ANI, "Govt using machinery such as the police to target politicians." He said Ravi Rana and his wife Navneet weren't being treated humanely by the police. Fadnavis accused the police of abusing Navneet, calling her 'lower caste and not allowing her to use the bathroom.
Fadnavis likened the government's behaviour to that of Hitler's. He tweeted, “If someone is behaving like Hitler, then one cannot conduct a dialogue with them, it then becomes a struggle.” “We decided not to attend the meeting as our activists were being oppressed and the police were abusing power,” he further wrote. Fadnavis went on to write, “They're (Navneet and Ravi Rana) charged with sedition…if Hanuman Chalisa is anti-national, anti-state, we will all chant it, let the state act against us." "If the CM himself is not attending, there is no point to the meeting. It is just an eyewash,” Fadnavis said.
Navneet Rana and her husband Ravi Rana, in the meanwhile, have approached the Bombay High Court with a petition to cancel the FIRs against them. The 16 Shiv Sena workers who were arrested by Khar Police yesterday, following a ruckus outside the residence of Amravati MP Navneet Rana & her husband MLA Ravi Rana have been granted bail.
