MUMBAI: Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar on Wednesday said it would have been better had his party colleague and Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil not made his remark about the role of Shiv Sena workers in the Babri Masjid demolition.
Patil's statement that not a single Sena worker was present when the Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished in 1992 has put the Bharatiya Janata Party in a spot, as it is a partner of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra government.
Shelar's reaction came after he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.
"Patil made those comments in personal capacity. Perhaps it would have been better had he not made those comments," he told reporters.
"All were working to bring together various communities and groups. Balasaheb's (late Sena founder Bal Thackeray) role in it (Ram Janmabhoomi movement) was helpful and supportive. We have welcomed it, respected it and honoured his (Bal Thackeray's) views in this movement," he said.
"I want to ask Uddhav ji (Uddhav Thackeray) what was his role in the whole (Babri Masjid demolition) operation," Shelar, a former Maharashtra minister, further said.
The BJP believes that the Babri structure demolition was a spontaneous reaction of Hindus, he said.
"The party neither took any credit for it, nor does it seek it now," he said, adding that religious leaders had started the Ayodhya movement.
Following Patil's remarks, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray had demanded that Chief Minister Shinde, himself a Shiv Sena worker, either step down himself or ask Patil to resign.
Bal Thackeray had often been quoted as saying that he was proud if any of his party workers were involved in the demolition of the mosque.