MUMBAI: The question of reopening of religious places closed since March over COVID-induced lockdown has led to a bitter exchange between Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari who sarcastically asked the CM if he had “turned secular” in a letter on Monday.
Thackeray wrote back on Tuesday, saying he didn’t “need any certificate” on Hindutva from Koshiyari, and that his Hindutva does not permit him to welcome a person who called Mumbai ‘Pakistan occupied Kashmir’.
The allusion was directed at Kangana Ranaut and her meeting with the Governor almost a month back over demolition of a part of her office by the Mumbai civic body. The Governor on Monday wrote that bars, restaurants and beaches were open but “gods and goddesses are kept in lockdown”. “I wonder if you are receiving any divine premonition to keep postponing the reopening of the places of worship time and again or have you turned ‘secular’ yourself, the term you hated,” asked the governor.
“You have been a strong votary of Hindutva. You had publicly espoused your devotion for Lord Rama by visiting Ayodhya after taking charge as Chief Minister. You had visited the Vitthal Rukmini Mandir in Pandharpur and performed the puja on Ashadhi Ekadashi,” Koshyari wrote.
Responding to the letter, Uddhav Thackeray said, “Do you mean that opening up religious places is Hindutva, and not opening them means being secular? Secularism is a crucial base of the oath you took
as Governor. Do you not believe it?”
‘Lifting the lockdown suddenly is also wrong’
In his letter, the CM retorted: “You said I am getting divine premonitions? Maybe you get them but I am not so big,” he wrote in Marathi. The Chief Minister also said just like “suddenly imposing lockdown” was wrong, lifting it suddenly was also wrong.