Taking serious cognisance of offensive articles published against Savitribai Phule in two websites, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday directed the State chief Secretary to initiate stern action against two websites in question for putting out defamatory content against Maharashtra’s iconic social reformer.
The chief minister’s directive to the state chief secretary came hours after a delegation of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) -- led by its state president Jayant Patil and leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Ajit Pawar – met Mumbai Commissioner of Police Vivek Phansalkar and demanded action against the two websites. They also demanded that the defamatory content against Savithribai Phule be removed from the two websites. Apart from Patil and Pawar, the other NCP leaders who were part of the delegation that met the Mumbai Police Commissioner included senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal and MP Sunil Tatkare. They submitted a two-page memorandum to the Police Commissioner, listing the names of the websites and their offensive remarks
Among other things, the memorandum submitted by the NCP delegation said that a person claiming to be some ‘Bharadwaj’ had made the scurrilous remarks against Savitribai (1831-1897) who is considered the pioneer of women’s education from the mid-1850s - who is revered in the state and country.