Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray whose call to remove loudspeakers from mosques stirred the entire Hanuman Chalisa controversy in the state and elsewhere on Thursday congratulated and thanked Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for removing thousands of loudspeakers from UP religious places, ‘specially the masjids’. “Unfortunately in Maharashtra, we don’t have any yogis; what we have are ‘bhogis’ (hedonists). Here’s hoping and praying good sense prevails,” Raj Thackeray’s message read.
In the last few days, the UP government has managed to remove over 11,000 loudspeakers in religious places while the volume of another 35,000 loudspeakers has been lowered to the permissible levels. One of the first to bring down its loudspeaker was Mathura’s Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi which decided not to broadcast its Mangalacharan Aarti through loudspeakers at Bhagwat Bhavan on the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi premises.
In his address at a Gudi Padwa gathering early this month, Raj Thackeray said his party workers will play Hanuman Chalisa in front of mosques if the state government does not remove loudspeakers from the mosques in the state. Later, he also gave an ultimatum to the state government to remove loudspeakers from mosques before May 3.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi government has refused to give any importance to Raj Thackeray’s threat and Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut dismissed Raj Thackeray by calling him ‘Maharashtra’s Owaisi’. However, the controversy took a serious turn when independent legislator couple Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana were arrested in connection with a Hanuman Chalisa controversy. They had announced they would go to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s residence and chant Hanuman Chalisa. The plan was foiled by Shiv Sena workers who laid a siege to the Rana residence and later the Ranas were arrested.
