Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) chief Chandrakant Patil’s statement of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji having developed a Hindu vote-bank has caused a furore in the political circles, with the “Maha Vikas Aghadi” coalition of the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress lambasting the remarks in different ways.
Mr. Patil, speaking in Pune, had earlier said Chhatrapati Shivaji had created the ‘Hindu vote bank’ which was realised and brought to fruition in recent times by (senior BJP leaders) Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In response on Wednesday, Shiv Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut retorted that it was the Shiv Sena and its late founder Bal Thackeray who was the first in the country “to ask the Hindu community for votes as Hindus”.
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Administering a sharp rebuke to the BJP, Mr. Raut said: “It was Balasaheb Thackeray who proved for the first time that there is a vote-bank of Hindus in the country. He and the Sena have proved that the ideal ‘Hindutva’ is not merely limited to temples nor is it just a politics of convenience as practicsd by some parties [the BJP].”
Mr. Patil had made his remarks in the context of vote-banks and of awarding tickets to political party candidates.
“It is the prerogative of a party to award or not to award tickets to candidates. A particular vote-bank is not the preserve of any single candidate…it is built over the years by the party and belongs to it… In fact, the concept of the vote-bank stretches back to the times of Chhatrapati Shivaji, who developed the Hindu vote bank…in recent times, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Prime Minister Modi have helped culminate this vote-bank,” the BJP State President had said.
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Mr. Raut said it was the Shiv Sena who had fought in the country for the first time on the issue of Hindutva in the byelection in Parel (in Mumbai) in 1992.
“At that time, no one could imagine that we the Sena should contest the elections on the Hindutva plank… Shiv Sena MLAs Ramesh Prabhu, Suryakant Mahadik and another MLA had even been disqualified for contesting elections on the issue of Hindutva. I don’t think any MP or MLA of the BJP has had to forfeit his candidacy over this issue,” Mr. Raut said, implying that it was the Sena, and not its one-time estranged ally, who was the real torchbearers of Hindutva .
Ever since its alliance with the ideologically opposed Congress and the NCP to deprive the BJP of power in Maharashtra, the Sena’s relationship with “Hindutva” and the RSS has been notably ambivalent, with the BJP losing no chance to criticise Uddhav Thackeray’s party of having forsaken “Hindutva’s” ideals.
Mr. Patil’s comments provoked a different kind of condemnation from the NCP and the Congress, with NCP MP Amol Kolhe remarking that the BJP leader’s statements were “an insult to Chhatrapati Shivaji’s inclusive and multi-faith principles”.
“Chhatrapati Shivaji had helped establish the rule of the rayat [tillers] and given that his name is taken with great pride everywhere in relation to the ideal of Swarajya and his inclusive ideals, Mr. Patil’s remarks of the legendary ruler having created a ‘Hindu vote-bank’ are extremely regrettable,” said Mr. Kolhe, who has himself essayed the role of the warrior King in a popular vernacular television series.