‘Ask your leaders, check CBI reports’: Sanjay Raut on Devendra Fadnavis' Babri remark

Sanjay Raut. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Responding to Devendra Fadnavis's charge that the Shiv Sena was absent when Babri Masjid was destroyed in Ayodhya, Sanjay Raut tweeted a video of veteran BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani who is heard saying that he had to ask the late Pramod Mahajan to go upfront and tell the Marathi-speaking karsevaks to stop the demolition.

Raut also tweeted old newspaper cuttings that said Shiv Sainiks were at the disputed site when the structure was pulled down.

Speaking to media persons on Monday, the Rajya Sabha MP said, "The BJP should ask its leaders, like [the late] Sunder Singh Bhandari, where Shiv Sena workers were then. They should check the CBI and IB reports. The BJP and its sister concern (MNS) have raked up old issues to divert public attention from real issues."

In the clip, an interview with NDTV, tweeted by Raut, Advani is heard saying that the Babri demolition was a terrible mistake. He had first asked Uma Bharti to ask people to stop tearing the mosque apart, and when Uma returned and told him that the people on top (of the structure) spoke Marathi and did not follow her, he sent Mahajan who also returned disappointed.

Questioning the Sena's Hindutva on Sunday at a BJP rally, Fadnavis said he was proud of being present there when the structure was demolished and asked the Sena about their leaders' alleged absence. The Opposition leader's statement has escalated the verbal battle between the former friends. Sena founder, the late Balasaheb Thackeray, had owned the responsibility of razing the mosque. The Sena leaders reminded the BJP of the founder's statement, wondering why its leaders were hiding from going public.

MNS postpones maha aarti

MNS president Raj Thackeray, who reiterated his deadline for removing loudspeakers atop mosques in Aurangabad on Sunday, asked his party workers to postpone maha aartis to be performed across the state on Eid, which overlaps with Akshaya Tritiya on Tuesday.

He posted on social media that as decided earlier, maha aartis should not be held because he did not want to disturb other religions of their festival days. "The issue of loudspeakers is not religious, but social and I will tell what to do about it tomorrow."

Raj speech to be verified

Home Minister Dililp Walse-Patil said the government would verify Raj Thackeray's speech in Aurangabad and seek legal opinion about taking action, if any, because the statements he made were instigating. He said the police have been issued instructions to be alert in sensitive areas. "There is a conscious effort to polarise the people. These parties [BJP and MNS] have divided the subjects between them," he said.