Hanuman Chalisa Row in Maharashtra

Insight Bureau: MP Navneet Rana and her husband, MLA Ravi Rana arrested by Mumbai police for `creating enmity between different groups’, as per recent reports.

Shiv Sena workers protested outside the residence of Amravati MP Navneet Rana in Mumbai and broke barricades amid the row over Hanuman Chalisa.

The Shiv Sena workers also threatened the Rana couple with dire consequences if they chanted Hanuman Chalisa outside ‘Matoshree’, the private residence of Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray.

MP Navneet Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana said they would go to Matoshree at 9 am on Saturday. Navneet Rana said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is at his post because of Hindutva but he has left his ideology now.

She said, “We will go to Matoshree at 9 am on Saturday. We are ready to face opposition. We don’t want any law and order issue. I am asking people not to join me.”Mumbai Police on Friday, April 22, served a notice to MP Navneet Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana after the couple said that they would recite Hanuman Chalisa outside Matoshree.

After the outrage and agitation, the Rana couple had to abandon their plans, but claimed victory saying their objective was fulfilled as Shiv Sena’s real anti-Hindu face came out in open.

What is the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ row?

It all started when Sena’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut said the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ and the festival of Ram Navami were matters of faith and not occasions for ‘stunts’.

On Friday, Rana told reporters he had demanded Uddhav Thackeray read the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ on Hanuman Jayanti “to rid Maharashtra of crises and attain peace for the state,” but claimed the chief minister had ‘refused’.

His demand followed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray’s ‘ultimatum’ over the azaan row – he warned the state to remove loudspeakers from mosques by May 3 or said his party would play the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ on loudspeakers outside mosques.

The BJP supported Raj Thackeray’s demand.

“We will go there (‘Matoshree’) to read the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ at nine tomorrow. We will cooperate with the police. I have asked our workers to ensure law and order is not disturbed in Mumbai. Police and people should not be troubled,” Rana said on Friday.

To this, Raut had termed the duo as ‘characters in a nautanki’. “People like Rana are characters in the nautanki (drama) and stunt of the BJP. People don’t take this stunt seriously,” he said.