Mumbai: Months ahead of the Mumbai civic polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has once again accused the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena of being sympathetic to fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim despite he having masterminded the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.
The BJP attacked the Uddhav faction over photographs of 1993 blasts convict Yakub Memon’s grave, which had allegedly been beautified with a marble boundary and LED lights.
Memon, who was hanged at the Nagpur Central Jail in 2015 for his role in the deadly blasts, is buried at Bada Kabarastan in South Mumbai’s Marine Lines area.
The BJP claimed that the beautification of Memon’s grave was done when the Uddhav-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was in power. It also alleged that the graveyard falls under the jurisdiction of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which the Shiv Sena had headed for 25 years until March this year, when the administrator took over at the end of five-year tenure of the BMC House.
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the home portfolio, Thursday ordered an inquiry to find out who beautified Memon’s grave, following which the Mumbai Police started a probe.
The Shiv Sena and the BMC have denied the charge, saying that the graveyard is managed by a private trust and the Mumbai civic body has nothing to do with it.
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‘Penguin Sena acting as Dawood’s propagandist’
BJP leader Ram Kadam Wednesday night tweeted ‘before and after’ pictures of Memon’s grave alleging that it was “turned into a shrine” when Uddhav headed the MVA government in Maharashtra.
उधव ठाकरे मुख्यमंत्री थे .उस क़ाल में मुंबई में पाकिस्तान के इशारे पर 1993 में बंबकांड करने वाला ख़ूँख़ार आतनवादी याकूब मेमन की कबर मझार में तब्दील हो गयी .
यही है इनका मुंबई से प्यार , यही इनकी देश भक्ती ?उधव ठाकरे समेत शरद पवार तथा राहुल गांधी माफ़ी माँगे मुंबई की जनता की pic.twitter.com/TAQNhBb36G
— Ram Kadam (@ramkadam) September 7, 2022
In its concerted attempts to wrest the BMC from the Uddhav-led Shiv Sena faction, the BJP has been raking up the 1993 Mumbai blasts to strike a chord with Mumbai residents since November last year.
The BJP had alleged that former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) minister Nawab Malik, currently in prison in connection with a money laundering probe, had links with the underworld and had criticised the Shiv Sena for shielding him as part of the MVA government.
The Enforcement Directorate had arrested Malik on various charges including having financial links with Mumbai blasts main accused Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar, owning properties linked to the gangster and facilitating a money laundering racket.
Following the controversy over Memon’s grave, the BJP claimed the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena was a “Dawood supporter” when in power, and has become a “Dawood propagandist” when in opposition.
“The complete responsibility of the beautification of gardens, playgrounds, cemeteries is with the BMC. It was your (Shiv Sena’s) mayor, you were the CM, and you are acting as Dawood’s propagandist?” Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar told reporters.
“The youth leader of Penguin Sena should start a ‘kabar bachav andolan’ (save the grave campaign),” Shelar said, taking a dig at Thackeray scion and Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray.
The BJP has previously taken jabs at Aaditya for his pet project of introducing penguins in the Mumbai zoo.
Shelar also spoke about how Congress leader Aslam Shaikh, who was Mumbai’s guardian minister as part of the MVA government, was among those who had allegedly opposed the death penalty to Memon. “This (the alleged beautification of Memon’s grave) has been done to appease the likes of Aslam Shaikh, Nawab Malik and the Tukde Tukde gang.”
‘BMC hell-bent on painting Shiv Sena as anti-Hindu’
A BMC official said the civic body had nothing to do with the alleged beautification. “The Bada Kabarastan is managed by a private trust,” he told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Shiv Sena Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) Manisha Kayande slammed the BMC’s criticism as yet another attempt to “paint the Shiv Sena as anti-Hindu.” She also questioned why the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government had in 2015 handed over Memon’s body to his family when he was hanged as a “terrorist”.
“Devendra Fadnavis was the CM when Yakub Memon was executed. He should be asked why Memon’s body was given to his relatives? Now once the body was given and buried, what happens inside the graveyard is their [the family’s] internal matter. The BMC gives land for graveyards, but doesn’t involve itself in its internal working,” she said.
“The BJP wants to time and again show that Shiv Sena is an anti-Hindu party, but they are being unsuccessful,” she added.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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