Union Minister Narayan Rane — who was arrested on Tuesday for threatening to slap Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray — was eating when the police came looking for him. He was arrested from Sangameshwar in Ratnagiri for his remarks made a day earlier, which have now snowballed into a full-blown political controversy.
The BJP released a video, which showed Rane holding a half-eaten plate of lunch, while his supporters were seen preventing the police from taking him away. The video also showed a man, purportedly Rane’s son Nitesh, who was heard saying, “Sir is eating. One minute. One minute… Don’t touch me.”
Rane has been taken into custody by police in the coastal Ratnagiri district, where he is travelling as part of the BJP’s Jan Ashirwad Yatra. He has been taken to the Sangameshwar police station, an official said.
A complaint was lodged by Nashik city Shiv Sena unit chief at the cyber police station there, after which an FIR was registered against Rane under IPC sections 500 (defamation), 505(2) (mischief), 153-B (1)(c) (remarks likely to cause disharmony, or feeling of enmity or hatred or ill-will), a police official said.
Reacting to his arrest, Rane told CNN-News18 that “he has no regrets and that Uddhav has also said wrong things in the past”.
The controversial remarks were made by Rane on Monday night during the Jan Ashirwad Yatra in Raigad. He had said it’s “shameful that the chief minister does not know the year of independence”. “He leaned back to enquire about the count of years of independence during his speech. Had I been there, I would have given (Uddhav Thackeray) a tight slap,” he had said.
BJP Cries Vendetta
Slamming the Maharashtra government for the arrest of Rane, BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday said it was violative of constitutional values, and his party will not be be cowed down by such actions. In a tweet, Nadda said the “huge” response the BJP has received in its ‘Jan Aashirvad Yatra’ has jolted its rivals. “We fight democratically. The yatra will continue,” he said. Rane was arrested on Tuesday over his remarks about slapping Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for what he claimed was the latter’s ignorance of the year of India’s independence.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also came down heavily on the Uddhav government, saying that action against Rane is “absolute vendetta”. “We strongly condemn this gross misuse of police force & suppression.
Sharjeel Usmani is free & Narayan Rane arrested. This is their Hindutva & This is what Maharashtra looks like,” he tweeted.
Sena-BJP workers Clash
Rane’s remarks drew sharp reactions from Shiv Sena, whose workers put several posters in Mumbai and other places, calling him a ‘kombdi chor’ (chicken stealer), a reference to the poultry shop he ran in Mumbai’s Chembur area five decades ago, during the initial part of his over four-decade stint with the Bal Thackeray-led party. Activists of Shiv Sena and its youth wing staged protests in various cities across Maharashtra against Rane.
In Pune’s Deccan Gymkhana area, Sena workers slapped posters of Rane with footwear. Yuva Sena workers staged a demonstration in Hadapsar. A stone was hurled at a mall located on JM Road in Pune, a police official said.
In Amravati, Sena workers vandalised the BJP office located in the Rajapeth area and also set various posters installed in front of the office on fire in protest against Rane’s remarks. No BJP office-bearer or party worker was present in the office at the time of the incident.
Sena activists poured petrol, brought by them in bottles, on the posters installed outside the office and set them afire around noon. They also hurled stones at the office. Heavy police security was deployed outside Rane’s residence in Mumbai in the wake of his remarks against Thackeray, an official said.
BJP workers had gathered outside Rane’s residence on Juhu Tara Road in Santacruz (West) in the morning in support of their party leader. Shiv Sena workers carrying placards and shouting slogans against Rane assembled in the Juhu area.
(With PTI inputs)
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