Mumbai: Nitesh Rane, leader of the Maharashtra Swabhimani Party, has accused the Shiv Sena of making false promises. His grouse is that the magnificent statue of Shivaji, as one approaches the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, has been weathering the elements as it has no ‘Chhatra’ (canopy) over it. To address this issue, he led a group of youths to the spot and they ensured that the statue was provided with a royal canopy on Friday.
According to Rane, on March 4, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, while performing puja on the occasion of Shiv Jayanti at the site, had promised to provide a canopy for the statue but this promise had been long forgotten. “Those who could not protect the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj have set off to build a Ram mandir in Ayodhya,” taunted Rane.
“Uddhav has always played saffron politics and now he is playing plain politics in Ayodhya. One who can’t provide shelter to Shivaji wants to construct a temple,” said Nitesh. The Shiv Sena had unveiled this statue in September 2015, in front of a huge crowd of Sainiks and amid heavy police bandobast, after it had been under wraps for six months, awaiting inauguration by a VIP.