After Tipu row, temple 'purification' triggers fresh fight

The controversy revolving around a photo of Tipu Sultan in the office of Malegaon Municipal Corporation deputy mayor has heated up in Maharashtra as the BJP has slammed Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal for equating the 18th-century Mysuru ruler with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Sapkal's remark led to a police case being filed against him in Pune and even the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Sena has castigated Sapkal for his remarks. "Comparing Chhatrapati (Shivaji) and Tipu Sultan's work has meant giving a weapon in the BJP's hands. There can be no comparison between Tipu Sultan and Shivaji Maharaj... Shivaji Maharaj respected women while Tipu Sultan was into forced conversion and other atrocities," said an editorial in UBT Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

Meanwhile, Malegaon deputy mayor Shaan e Hind Nihal Ahmed, who put up Tipu Sultan's picture in her chambers and led to the controversy, said that she would again put up the picture. "Tipu Sultan treated both Hindus and Muslims equally. The picture will be put up again after some repairs are done to the room," said Ahmed.

While the BJP and Shiv Sena are on the same lines on the Tipu Sultan issue, the BJP has taken umbrage at Shiv Sena MLA Abdul Sattar for offering prayers at the Nageshwar Temple in Sillod's Rahimabad on the occasion of Mahashivratri. Following Sattar's entry, a group of men did "purification" of the temple premises by sprinkling cow urine on it. BJP's cultural cell chief Tushar Bhosale has justified the act and said, "Has Abdul Sattar converted himself to Hinduism? If not, then he should have taken the blessings from outside the temple only. Our temples are not memorials that anyone can come in. We have some religious rules, for politics one should not break our religious rules. If he wants to take blessings, he should convert himself."


Deputy CM Eknath Shinde seems to have taken the BJP head on by supporting Sattar. "Abdul Sattar is an MLA and he loves the country and is a nationalist. Such kinds of things (purification after Sattar's visit) is not right," Shinde said. The UBT Sena has also taken on the BJP claiming that the latter has no locus standi. "Is Bhosale a Shankaracharya that he can say anything. If a Muslim wants to worship in our temple, then it should be welcomed. Why oppose it? The BJP is trying to limit our religion, our Hinduism is very vast," said UBT Sena leader Ambadas Danve.