Mumbai: Launching a full-blown attack on the Shiv Sena on the issue of Hindutva, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said he was present in Ayodhya when the Babri structure was brought down, and claimed that no Sena leader was there when it happened.
Needling the Sena on the issue of Hanuman Chalisa and the arrest of MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana, Fadnavis asked whether the Uddhav Thackeray-led party was on the side of Lord Ram or Ravana.
Addressing a BJP rally here, Fadnavis also claimed that he was lodged in Badaun central jail for 18 days for doing ‘kar seva’ for the Ram temple construction purpose.
The former Maharashtra chief minister’s attack on the Shiv Sena comes in the wake of the Uddhav Thackeray-led party asking where BJP leaders were when parts of the mosque were razed in the early 1990s in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya.
“They asked the other day where were we hiding when the Babri structure was brought down they got scared like hell when they were asked to remove loudspeakers from mosques and are now claiming that they brought down the Babri mosque structure,” Fadnavis said.
He said he did not consider Babri a mosque, but a “dhancha” (structure) as “no Hindu can ever pull down a mosque”.
“I want to ask you where you were when the structure was brought down? I am saying with pride that, yes, I was there to bring the structure down. This Devendra Fadnavis was there to bring the structure down. Also, this Devendra Fadnavis spent 18 days in Badaun central jail before that for doing kar seva for the Ram temple,” he added.
Fadnavis asked which leader from Maharashtra had gone to Ayodhya when the structure was brought down.
—PTI

Press Trust of India