Often deployed by events to attain factors, the handy spectre of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb now finds itself dragged into the grubby political battle in Maharashtra forward of the BMC elections.
What has been set off the most recent spherical is a go to by controversial AIMIM chief Akbaruddin Owaisi to Aurangzeb’s open-air, nondescript grave close to Aurangabadmarked by a small candy basil plant.
With the BJP and MNS ready to journey the Shiv Sena – which is in a ruling coalition with the Congress and NCP – over any matter Hindutva, the go to has come in useful.
And the bait, within the type of AIMIM, could not be extra biting for the Sena.
In Maharashtra, the place politics revolves round Chhatrapati Shivaji, and therefore his rivalry with Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor is seen because the very antithesis of Maharashtrian delight and Maratha valor. The Sena, however, has constructed itself as a repository of each.
In this political incarnation, Aurangzeb’s grave, and by extension Aurangabad, has performed a vital position. While the town was constructed by Malik Ambar, a regent of the Nizam Shahi dynasty, it was renamed Aurangabad in 1610 by Aurangzeb when he made it his capital.
In the late Nineteen Eighties, Aurangabad grew to become one of many first main cities exterior the Mumbai-Thane belt that the Sena set its eyes on. The metropolis’s 30% Muslim inhabitants made it fertile floor for polarisation, and shortly after riots that led to the killing of over 25 individuals, the Sena gained the elections to the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation in 1988.
On May 8, 1988, Shiv Sena supremo late Balasaheb Thackeray introduced the renaming of the town as Sambhaji Nagar after Sambhaji, the son of Shivaji who was killed by Aurangzeb. In 1995, the company handed a decision to take action, and the Shiv-Sena led authorities within the state issued a notification looking for options and objections from individuals on this.
The notification was challenged within the High Court by then AMC corporator (of the Congress) Mushtaq Ahmed. While the plea was dismissed by the court docket, stating that no choice had been taken the renaming has remained a contentious difficulty and resurfaces forward of each election.
With the Shiv Sena now in energy, each the BJP and the newly resurgent Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have been trying to pin the social gathering down on the problem of Aurangabad, understanding very effectively its palms are being tied in an alliance.
In March 2020, as a placatory gesture, the MVA authorities had cleared a proposal to rename the Aurangabad airport as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Airport. However, this has not but acquired the go-ahead from the Centre.
Into this has stepped Akbaruddin Owaisi.
The Sena cannot afford to disregard the AIMIM because the social gathering already has a powerful base in Aurangabad, being the second largest social gathering within the Municipal Corporation and profitable an MLA seat in 2014. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, four-term Sena MP Chandrakant Khair had been defeated by the AIMIM’s Imtiaz Jaleel.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s choice to carry a public rally in Aurangabad earlier this month was additionally a well-crafted transfer to harm the Sena the place it hurts.
Sena insiders see a coordinated transfer in Akbaruddin Owaisi’s go to to Aurangzeb’s grave and the MNS difficult the social gathering in Aurangabad. They additionally see the BJP’s hand within the MNS’s sudden belligerence.
The Sena has been on the forefront in criticizing the AIMIM chief’s go to to the grave. MP Sanjay Raut stated it was meant to vitiate the environment within the state and that “followers of the 17th Century Mughal Emperor” would meet the identical destiny as him.
But the BJP desires the Sena to do extra, questioning its “hesitation” in taking motion in opposition to those that visited Aurangzeb’s tomb. “We won’t tolerate something that glorifies Aurangzeb in any approach. Those who’re attempting to take action ought to face some motion,” Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis stated.
The Congress has raised a logical query, on what prices could be introduced in opposition to somebody for visiting a grave. But logic is just not what this debate is about.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
