MUMBAI: Leader of Opposition in state legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil is the latest to join the bandwagon of those opposing Maharashtra government's decision to confer its highest award on historian Babasaheb Purandare.
"The state government should reconsider its decision to honour Purandare," the senior state Congress leader said in Ahmednagar district.
"Conferring the award will mean devaluing it, in the backdrop of serious allegations against Purandare for distorting historical facts," Patil said.
Earlier, Jnanpith award-winning Marathi author Bhalchandra Nemade, has in a letter to chief minister, has opposed the state government's decision to confer the 'Maharashtra Bhushan' award on Purandare, accusing him of making derogatory references about Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
The letter also includes signatures of a few social activists, including Vidya Bal.
"I feel that the portrayal of Shivaji in Purandare's work is not in keeping with history. I have respect for Purandare but I have a different image of Shivaji in my mind," Nemade has said.
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Lok Sabha member from Satara Udayanraje Bhosle, who is a direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, said here today that the Maharashtra government should put off the award function which is scheduled for August 19, due to the controversy about Purandare.