BJP demands opening up of temples, threatens agitations

PUNE: With the auspicious Hindu month of Shravan having begun, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on Monday threatened to launch agitations if the state government did not relent to its demand for opening up all temples and religious places

PUNE: With the auspicious Hindu month of Shravan having begun, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on Monday threatened to launch agitations if the state government did not relent to its demand for opening up all temples and religious places.

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BJP city unit president Jagdish Mulik put forth the demand and said, “While everything is opening up, only temples and religious places are closed. The Shravan month of the Marathi calendar is upon us and it is an auspicious month. If the Shiv Sena is a Hindu party as it claims, why is chief minister Uddhav Thackeray not opening up temples!”

Taking a swipe at the Sena on the subject of religious places, the BJP said that as the party had entered into an alliance with the Congress party and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the two parties had worn the burqa (cloak) of secularism, the Sena was not opening up temples under pressure from them.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar countered saying, “The decision regarding religious places will be taken at the state level. Each district will not have different criteria. Recently, the state government allowed warkaris (pilgrims) to walk some distance till Pandharpur (place of pilgrimage) but later the positivity rate was found to have increased in those talukas of the Solapur district wherever gatherings took place on the palkhi route.”

In a thinly-veiled jibe, Pawar said that some people were used to speaking from both sides. “The opposition will ask us to open schools, malls, markets and religious places but the same people will question the government about opening up these institutions and putting citizens in danger if there is a third wave. The government needs to make a conscious decision and not come under pressure or sentiments. While reopening everything, the highest priority is the citizens’ lives. No government wants to keep people at home and shut markets. It is also a revenue loss for the government.”

Protests over Khel Ratna renaming

Meanwhile, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Monday protested the change in the name of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in front of the Rajiv Gandhi statue at Katraj. Leaders from the NCP, Congress party and Shiv Sena participated in the protest organised by Congress spokesperson Gopal Tiwari. NCP city unit president Prashant Jagtap criticised the BJP over the change in name and said that the party had shown its narrow mindset in doing so. “Rajiv Gandhi brought the internet and the information technology revolution in India. During the Covid pandemic, people were able to work from home only because of Rajiv Gandhi’s vision,” Tiwari said.