Lockdown: Will break open locks of temples on November 1, says Maharashtra BJP's spiritual wing

Maharashtra BJP’s spiritual wing on Wednesday threatened to break open the lock of temples and other places of worship if the Uddhav Thackeray-dispensation does not allow re-opening by 1 November.

A delegation led by BJP spiritual coordination committee head, Acharya Tushar Bhosale submitted a memorandum to the state governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. In the past, the BJP’s spiritual wing had held two protests demanding that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government re-open the temples.

Read | Have you suddenly turned ‘secular’? Maharashtra Guv Koshyari asks CM Uddhav Thackeray

According to a press statement, the party had twice sought an appointment with Thackeray and demanded that temples be opened by 27 October.

Earlier this month, Koshyari had shot off a letter to Thackeray on the issue that snowballed into a major controversy.

In the letter to Thackeray, the Governor said: “In a letter to Uddhav, the Governor said: “….You have been a strong votary of Hindutva. You have publicly espoused your devotion for Lord Rama by visiting Ayodhya after taking charge as Chief Minister. You visited Vitthal Rukmini Mandir in Pandharpur and performed the puja on Ashadi Ekadashi. I wonder if you are receiving any divine premonition to keep postponing the reopening of the places of worship time and again or have you suddenly turn ‘secular’ yourself, the term you hated.”

The Chief Minister, however, shot back at him saying: "You have taken oath as a Governor…and secularism is a part of the Constitution. However, I don’t need a certificate on Hindutva from anybody, nor do I have to learn it from anyone. Those giving a warm welcome to people who compare my state and its capital (Mumbai) with Pakistan Occupied Kashmir don’t fit in my Hindutva."

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi complaining about the kind of language the Governor used in the letter.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has snubbed the Governor saying: “I have read the letter. He has made a passing reference. I believe some restraint could have been exercised”.