The Maharashtra Government’s decision to confer the prestigious ‘Maharashtra Bhushan’ award on historian Babasaheb Purandare snowballed into a fierce controversy on Tuesday, with the Sambhaji brigade activists resorting to violence in some parts of the State and MNS chief Raj Thackeray accusing NCP president Sharad Pawar of indulging in “dirty” caste politics over the issue.
A day ahead of Purandare being presented Maharashtra’s highest award at a ceremony to be held at Raj Bhavan here, the agitating Sambhaji brigade activists hurled stones at the office of Minister of State for Home Ram Shinde at Ahmednagar, while an irate group of protesters belonging to the same organisation set a State Transport bus on fire in the temple town of Pandharpur in western Maharashtra.
After damaging the glass panes at the Minister’s office, the protesters threw leaflets inside Shinde’s premises. The leaflets warned the State Government of dire consequences in the event of it going ahead with Wednesday’s award ceremony. At Pandharpur, a dozen motorbike-ridden Sambhaji activists waylaid a Kolhapur-bound bus, asked the passengers to get down and set the vehicle on fire with the petrol that they were carrying with them. The protesters raised slogans against Purandare and Raj Thackeray.
The Sambhaji Brigade, which represents the powerful Maratha community, has been agitating against the State Government’s move to confer “Maharashtra Bhushan” on Purandare on the ground that he and writers like him were part of a “Brahmanical conspiracy” hatched to defame Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji’s mother Jijabai and distort history.
It may be recalled that the Sambhaji brigade activists had ransacked the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) at Pune, and destroyed 18,000 books and 30,000 rare manuscripts on January 5, 2004 in protest against some “sacrilegious” observations made by historian James laine in his controversial book “Shivaji-The Hindu King in Muslim India” against Shivaji and his mother Jijamata. The BORI was targeted by the Sambhaji brigade activists, as it was in this institution that laine had done his research for the controversial book.
Reacting to continued protests by Sambhaji brigade, MNS chief Raj Thackeray said: “If anyone dare to touch Purandare, I will create ‘tandav’ (havoc) in Maharashtra”.
Addressing a news conference here, Raj accused Pawar and “some BJP Ministers” of being behind the conspiracy to defame Purandare.
“While not defending Devendra Fadnavis, I would like to say one thing that ever since he became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, a conspiracy is being hatched against him. I do not want to name as to who are the BJP Ministers behind the whole thing. let me tell you that these Ministers cannot digest the fact that Fadnavis is junior to them and he is a Brahmin. That’s why they are indulging in caste politics in collusion with Pawar,” Raj said.
Expressing surprise as to why Pawar has suddenly turned against Purandare, Raj said: “On a few occasions in the past, Pawar had himself felicitated Purandare. Did he think on those occasions what Purandare had written about Jijamata were not correctIJ How does he account for the fact that after the State Government announced its decision to confer RsMaharashtra Bhushan’ on the noted historian, his daughter and NCP Surpriya Sule was among the persons who congratulated PurandareIJ”.
On his part, Pawar dismissed the MNS chief’s criticism of him by saying that he did not want to give “undue importance” to the statements by the latter.
Alluding to a letter written by Jnanpith award-winning Marathi author Bhalchandra Nemade to the Chief Minister opposing the State Government’s decision to bestow RsMaharashtra Bhushan’ award on Purandare on the ground that the historian had made “derogatory’ references about Shivaji, the MNS chief said: “Nemade should learn a lesson or two from two other Jnanpith award winning poets from Maharashtra Kusumagraj and Vinda Karandikar on how to conduct himself after receiving the country’s highest literary award.”
Meanwhile, 26 gram panchayats from lohar Taluka of Osmanabad district have adopted a resolution requesting the State Government not to bestow RsMaharashtra Bhushan’ award on Purandare. Apart from sending an email to the Chief Minister giving details of their resolution, the gram panchayat office bearers are planning to send 5,000 protest letters to the State Government.
Prominent among those who have opposed the Government’s decision to confer the prestigious award on Purandare are: leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil of the Congress and NCP MP from Satara, Udayanraje Bhosale, who is a direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Bhosale has said that the State Government should cancel Wednesday’s ceremony in view of the controversy over Purandare’s choice for the honour.