Tit-For-Tat Hanuman Chalisa Offer For PM Modi After Uddhav Thackeray

A leader from Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has hit out at the BJP, shooting off a stinging letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking permission to read the Hanuman Chalisa and Namaz outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence. The stunt was an obvious reprisal for a similar threat by an MP-MLA couple in Maharashtra for Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray over the weekend.

Fahmida Hasan Khan said she wanted to read the Namaz, Hanuman Chalisa, Durga Chalisa, Namokar Mantra and more outside PM Modi's official residence at Delhi's Lok Kalyan Marg.

Ms Khan said that she recites the Hanuman Chalisa and does Durga Puja at her home.

"But the way inflation and unemployment are increasing in the country, it has become necessary to wake up the Prime Minister of the country, Narendra Modi... if Ravi Rana and Navneet Rana can enjoy the benefit of reading Hanuman Chalisa outside Matoshree [Uddhav Thackeray's residence], we should be allowed to go to PM Modi's residence in Delhi to offer Namaz, Hanuman Chalisa and Durga Chalisa," she said.

Speaking to NDTV about her letter, she said, "I want to hold an all-inclusive prayer. If Navneet Rana can say she wants to awaken Uddhav Thackeray's Hindutva, the Jain religion of our Home Minister and Prime Minister should also be awakened,"

Admitting that her proposal was aimed at countering the distraction from important issues, Ms Khan said, "It can't go on like this. No one is talking about the real issues. Prices are increasing, unemployment is rising, the GDP growth is slowing. These stunts are done by the central government to divert the attention of the people."

A Mumbai court on Sunday had sent independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana to 14-day judicial custody, a day after they were arrested in connection with their announcement to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Mr Thackeray's residence.

The court sent the politician couple in judicial remand, rejecting the city police's demand for their custody, an official said.

While Navneet Rana will be sent to the Byculla women's jail, her husband will be taken to the Arthur Road jail, the official said.

Meanwhile, 13 Shiv Sena workers were arrested on Sunday for allegedly protesting outside the Khar residence of the Ranas the previous day. The party workers were later released on bail, police said.

The city police had on Saturday evening arrested Badnera MLA Ravi Rana and his wife Navneet Rana, the MP from Amravati in Maharashtra, for allegedly "creating enmity between different groups".

The move came hours after the couple cancelled their plan to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Uddhav Thackeray's residence following a day-long demonstration by Shiv Sena supporters outside their home.

The controversy over the Hanuman Chalisa and Azaan flared in Maharashtra earlier this month, just ahead of the elections for India's richest municipal body - the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation or BMC - with the BJP and Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) raising the issue to target the ruling Shiv Sena.

BJP and MNS workers in several parts of Maharashtra took to playing the Hanuman Chalisa from loudspeakers after a call-to-arms by Raj Thackeray at a rally in Mumbai on the occasion of the Marathi New Year festival Gudi Padwa.

A BJP leader in the state even offered to bankroll loudspeakers to play the Hanuman Chalisa in public places.