MUMBAI: A law, a text, a national monument: Shivaji received a number of gifts at Raigad Fort on Saturday.
During his visit to the erstwhile capital of the Maratha empire, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that he intends to usher in a law that will penalise those who insult icons of Maharashtra, particularly the Maratha warrior king.
He also announced plans to commission a standard history of Shivaji that would ensure his story could not be “twisted by anyone else”. And he declared plans to develop the first national memorial to the Maratha warrior king, in New Delhi.
“We are all of the view that those who insult our idols and Shivaji Maharaj should be thrown from Takmak Tok (a high point at Raigad Fort, from where such executions were once carried out), but we live in a democracy and thus a law will be framed in consonance with the democracy,” the chief minister said.
His visit, incidentally, came in the wake of Shivaji’s 345th death anniversary. Raigad Fort is where the Maratha king was crowned emperor in 1674, and where he died, on April 3, 1680.
Fadnavis’s declarations also come in the wake of heated controversy over the legacy of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb vis-à-vis the Maratha rulers. This row began when Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi made a comment about a recently released Hindi film, Chhaava. The film depicted the capture, torture and execution of Shivaji’s son and successor, Sambhaji, on the orders of Aurangzeb. Azmi dismissed the portrayal, saying Aurangzeb had not been a cruel ruler. He had been a “good administrator”, he said.
The row that followed saw influential Marathi voices raised on both sides of the debate.
Amid it all, BJP member of Parliament Udayanraje Bhosale, a descendant of the Shivaji family, demanded a law to penalise those making disrespectful statements against the warrior king.
With Union home minister and BJP leader Amit Shah present at Raigad Fort on Saturday, chief minister Fadnavis went a step further. “I want to request the home minister that there should be a national memorial of Shivaji Maharaj, for which we will come to you (in New Delhi) and with your help will identify an appropriate place and develop the memorial,” Fadnavis said.
He also addressed the delays in building a proposed memorial to Shivaji in the Arabian Sea, off the coast of Mumbai. “The case was stuck in the Supreme Court but now the apex court has transferred it to the Bombay High Court. As Mavlas of Maharaj (Soldiers of Shivaji), we will not give up and will get the clearances required. We will try to develop the memorial at any cost,” he said.
In the state budget presented on March 10, the state government had announced plans to build a number of memorials, including to Shivaji and Sambhaji. One of these, the proposal states, could be in Agra, where Shivaji was held captive by Aurangzeb.
