Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray or UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on December 25, 2022 demanded to know why no Special Investigation Team (SIT) had been constituted against Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for his “insult” to Chhatrapati Shivaji. Mr. Raut also said the real reason the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government had ordered a SIT probe into the death of Disha Salian (former talent manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput) was to stifle the opposition for speaking out on important issues such as the Governor’s “insult” to Chhatrapati Shivaji, the Maharashtra-Karnataka border row, and the Chief Minister’s alleged involvement in the Nagpur land scam case.
Remarking that no previous government in the history of the State operated with so much political malice, Mr. Raut questioned the motive behind dragging former Minister and Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray’s name into the Disha Salian case. “Why is this issue being raked up now despite Aaditya Thackeray not having the least connection with it? On the one hand, resolutions are being passed in the Karnataka Assembly on the border dispute while unparliamentary language is being used against Maharashtra’s leaders — while all this is happening, our CM and Deputy CM [Mr. Fadnavis] are pre-occupied with non-issues like the Disha Salian case… I dare them to constitute an SIT against the Governor who has insulted Shivaji. Why aren’t they doing that?” Mr. Raut said.
Mr. Koshyari created a furore recently when he remarked at a function in Aurangabad that the 17th century Maratha warrior king — revered as a deity in Maharashtra — was an “icon for older times”. The Governor’s statement was construed by the opposition as that Shivaji’s ideals were outmoded.
Mr. Raut further demanded that the ruling government must constitute a SIT to investigate a diary that allegedly belonged to deceased Thane builder Suraj Parmar, who took his life in 2015. “Parmar’s diary contains code names. We know whose names [political personalities] they belong to. Why does not the government constitute an SIT probe on that instead?” he said.
Remarking that the Shinde-Fadnavis government had seized power “by destroying Maharashtra’s pride”, Mr. Raut said it lacked the political will to address pressing issues pertaining to the State.
Last week, Mr. Fadnavis had announced a SIT probe into the Disha Salian death while claiming that it was never handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), while promising a “free and fair” probe.
Meanwhile, in his weekly column ‘Rokhthok’ in the Sena (UBT)’s mouthpiece Saamana, Mr. Raut questioned whether the ruling BJP agreed with the view of Mr. Fadnavis’ wife, Amruta Fadnavis, who had recently referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the “father of new India”.
While the Congress severely censured Ms. Fadnavis’ remarks given the comparisons of Mr. Modi with the ‘Father of the Nation’ Mahatma Gandhi, Mr. Raut quipped that Ms. Fadnavis’ extravagant epithet was an “insult” to the PM given that in the “new India”, the ghosts of hunger, poverty, unemployment and terrorism were raising their heads.
“No one in the BJP talks about ‘Veer’ [Vinayak] Savarkar being the ‘father of the nation’. It only shows that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was always opposed to Savarkar who underwent rigorous imprisonment. These [RSS and BJP] people have partitioned India into old and new,” Mr. Raut said.
Mr. Raut said that while the ‘Father of the Nation’ epithet was given to Mahatma Gandhi by the people, it had been opposed by several political leaders, including Shiv Sena’s founder Bal Thackeray. “The question here is not about epithets but about the BJP’s contribution to the freedom struggle…they [the RSS and BJP] had no role to play in the freedom movement and hence, they have to steal icons linked to the Congress, like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose,” Mr. Raut said.
