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‘Chalo Ayodhya’ posters come up in Mumbai as Raj Thackeray plans visit to UP city
Raj Thackeray has reiterated his call to remove loudspeakers from mosques on May 3, and warned Hanuman Chalisa would be played with double volume in comparison to Azaan from May 4 onwards.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers have put up posters of ‘Chalo Ayodhya’ in Mumbai ahead of outfit chief Raj Thackeray's visit to the city in Uttar Pradesh on June 5. Written in Hindi, the poster reads, “Jai Shri Ram. Dharmada nahi main bhi dharm abhimani. Chalo Ayodhya,” which roughly translated to English means “Jai Shri Ram. I am not religious for goodness' sake. I am a religious person. Let's go to Ayodhya”.
Thackeray, meanwhile, reiterated his call to remove loudspeakers from mosques on May 3, failing which he said Hanuman Chalisa would be played with double volume in comparison to Azaan from May 4. Addressing a mega rally in Aurangabad, he said the loudspeaker issue is not new, and not at all religious.
The MNS chief further said that if Uttar Pradesh can take loudspeakers down from mosques and temples, nothing should stop Maharashtra from following suit.
Addressing the Aurangabad gathering as ‘Hindus’, Thackeray said, “A Nashik journalist told me that he is a Muslim and that he also has a problem with loudspeakers. His children cannot sleep.”
Thackeray said he would soon do more rallies in Vidarbha, Konkan, west Maharashtra, east Maharashtra and Marathwada.
The controversy first emerged after Thackeray in his Gudi Padwa address last month said that his party will play Hanuman Chalisa on loudspeakers at mosques if those are not removed. Soon after, an independent MP-MLA couple Navneet and Ravi Rana gave the call to chant the hymn outside Shiv Sena supremo and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray's family residence ‘Matoshree’. Though the Rana couple dismissed the call later, they were booked by Mumbai Police on sedition charges and have been behind bars since April 23.
Earlier in the day, Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar, cautioned MNS workers against taking law into their hands as she referred to Thackeray's May 3 ultimatum. “MNS workers shouldn't take the law into their hands otherwise their life will be wasted attending court dates,” she was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Pednekar said that loudspeakers should be used in accordance with noise pollution norms, and if a person breaches the stipulated decibel limit, they should be removed.
(With inputs from agencies)
