Shiv Sena urged Prime Minister Modi Amit Shah to call the governor of Maharashtra for his comments.
Mumbai:
Shiv Sena said today that Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari must be removed if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Interior Minister Amit Shah wish to preserve Raj Bhavan’s “prestige”.
An editorial in the Saamana party spokesman launched a harsh attack on Koshyari, 78, who recently wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray about reopening places of worship and asked if the Seine leader had “suddenly become secular.”
The editorial said the BJP has been “exposed” on this issue. Using the governor’s office to attack the state government has proven costly for the opposition party in Maharashtra, he added.
Restaurants have opened with a strict COVID-19 security protocol, but reopening temples will be overcrowded, he said. If the BJP wants the temples to reopen, then there should be a national policy, he said. Several important temples in the country are closed, he added.
The editorial justified the Chief Minister’s response to Mr. Koshyari’s letter. “Even the gods must be ringing the temple bells happily,” it read.
“If the ringing of the bells has reached Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah, then they will call on the governor to preserve the prestige of Raj Bhavan,” the editorial said.
Koshyari and Thackeray are locked in a bitter war of words after the former pushed for the reopening of places of worship in the state closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and asked the latter if it had suddenly become secular.
Thackeray responded to Koshyari’s letter saying that he will consider the request but stated that he does not need the governor’s certificate for “my Hindutva”, even as BJP workers held protests outside temples in various cities across the state demanding the reopening of places of worship.
PCN President Sharad Pawar also got into the dispute between the two constitutional officials and wrote to Modi expressing shock at the “intemperate language” used in the governor’s letter to the chief minister.
The dispute erupted after Koshyari wrote a letter to Thackeray about statements received by his office demanding the reopening of places of religious worship, closed since late March in view of the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent closure.
In his letter on Monday, Koshyari told Uddhav Thackeray that it is “ironic that while on the one hand the state government allowed the opening of bars, restaurants and beaches, our gods and goddesses have been condemned to remain locked up.”
In response to the letter, Thackeray wrote to the governor on Tuesday, saying the state government will consider his request to reopen these places.
The prime minister said a decision will be made on the reopening of places of worship, a demand made vociferously by opposition BJP, after careful consideration of the COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra, which leads among states in number. of cases and deaths.
In his letter, the tone and content of which drew criticism from the ruling allies, Congress and the PNC as well, Mr. Koshyari had mentioned that he had received three representations from delegations demanding the reopening of places of religious worship.
In response, Thackeray pointed to the “coincidence” that the three letters Mr. Koshyari mentioned were from officials and supporters of the BJP.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
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