NEW DELHI: Coming out in defence of the lawmaker couple from Maharashtra — independent MP wife Navneet Rana and her husband, MLA Ravi Rana, also an independent — BJP on Sunday accused Maharashtra’s MVA government of having hatred for Hindu faith and asked since when reciting the Hanuman Chalisa has become seditious.
BJP extended its support to the couple a day after Mumbai Police arrested the Ranas for “creating enmity between different groups” after they announced they will recite Hanuman Chalisa in front of the residence of CM Uddhav Thackeray.
As the announcement triggered angry reactions from Shiv Sena supporters, many of whom laid siege to the residence of the Ranas in Mumbai’s Khar, the couple had to be whisked away by police. They were remanded in judicial custody by a Mumbai court on Sunday.
At a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, party spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia defended the Ranas and recited a few Hanuman Chalisa couplets.
Dubbing the Maha Vikas Aghadi dispensation as ‘Maha Vasooli’ (extortionist) government, he said in Maharshtra if somebody chants Hanuman Chalisa the government slaps a sedition case against them.
“In India, we can proudly chant Hanuman Chalisa. Since when it has become treason to chant it? The state government has hatred towards faith of Hindus” he said.
Taking on Congress, an ally in the Maharashtra government, Bhatia claimed, in its manifesto for the 2019 general elections the party had announced it will scrap the sedition law if voted to power.
Now it is part of the government which is using the same law, he said.
Dubbing the Maha Vikas Aghadi dispensation as ‘Maha Vasooli’ (extortionist) government, Gaurav Bhatia said in Maharshtra if somebody chants Hanuman Chalisa the government slaps a sedition case against them.
