The depiction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “latter-day King Shivaji” in a booklet of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sparked protests across Maharashtra and demands that the party immediately withdraw it and halt further publication.
Aaj ke Shivaji, Narendra Modi , written by Jai Prakash Goyal, BJP leader and president of the United Hindu Front (an umbrella body of fringe right wing outfits), provoked the ire of pro-Maratha outfits such as the Sambhaji Brigade. Shivendraraje Bhosale, BJP legislator from Satara and direct descendant of the Maratha warrior king, urged his party superiors to rein in “overzealous” activists like Mr. Goyal.
The Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) staged protests in Nashik, Kolhapur and Osmanabad, while members of the Sambhaji Brigade held a demonstration against the BJP near Lal Mahal, the legendary palace in Pune where King Shivaji lived as a child along with his mother, Rajmata Jijabai.
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“If the BJP does not withdraw this booklet within a week, then the Brigade will ensure that not a single BJP office is left standing in Maharashtra,” warned its leader Santosh Shinde.
The outfit further demanded that Chhatrapati Shivaji’s 13th descendant, ex-Satara MP and BJP leader Udayanraje Bhosale, spell out his stance.
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Members of the Brigade also burnt effigies of Mr. Goyal in Solapur, while a police complaint against the BJP leader was lodged by a Shiv Sena activist in Solapur’s Faujdar Chavadi police station.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said: “Shivaji Maharaj cannot be compared to anyone, even Balasaheb had said, when he was compared to Maharaj.”
Maharashtra Congress president Balasaheb Thorat has called a statewide protest on Tuesday against the BJP.
On Monday, Mumbai Congress president Eknath Gaikwad led a protest against the BJP and burned the effigy of the booklet’s author.