Mumbai: Maharashtra BJP chief Ravindra Chavan's suggestion that the party's youth wing should not protest over remarks by MNS leaders prompted the state Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) to assert on Wednesday that it would respond in kind if anyone tried to disrupt its events.
"Yesterday's boy says something, someone listens to it, and someone goes and removes the photograph. We should not have held a protest against this. My request to Yuva Morcha workers is, do not hold protests. We want to educate the youth, not turn them into goons," Chavan said at a BJP meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday evening.
He was referring to the stand-off between BJYM supporters, led by its president Krishnaraj Mahadik, and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). BJYM held a protest march against MNS leader Amit Thackeray, who had asked his party workers to remove Prime Minister Narendra Modi's photo from a government polytechnic college in Pune.
Responding to questions about Chavan's remarks, Mahadik said, "We have always followed whatever orders Chavan gives us and will continue to do so. But Yuva Morcha is a wing where the feelings of every youngster need to be expressed. We are not a generation that will suppress what we feel. Whatever happened yesterday, happened."
Tensions flared in Pune and Mumbai on Tuesday, as BJP youth wing workers clashed with MNS supporters over the photo removal issue, leading to police detentions in Dadar and Mahim.
Mahadik, son of BJP Rajya Sabha member Dhananjay Mahadik, alleged that MNS workers had tried to push and jostle BJP Yuva Morcha activists during their agitation against the "insult to the PM".
"After properly checking the CCTV footage and other videos of the entire incident, we saw that all our BJP Yuva Morcha workers had gathered in a disciplined manner at Mahim Naka to stage the protest. MNS workers came from behind and tried to push some of our workers. Our workers responded to them in kind," he said.
"I would only challenge them that if you try to create any such incident in any of BJP Yuva Morcha's programmes in future, you will get an answer in kind," Mahadik said.
He said his protest was against what he described as an insult to PM Modi and the post he holds, and alleged that MNS leader Amit Thackeray had insulted the Constitution by objecting to Modi's photograph being displayed at a government college in Pune.
Calling the episode "unfortunate and ridiculous", Mahadik claimed that there was a provision for photographs of the PM and President to be displayed in government offices.
The BJP Yuva Morcha attempted to stage a protest outside MNS chief Raj Thackeray's residence, 'Shivtirth', in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Mahadik had planned to lead the protest to Thackeray's residence, but MNS workers had formed a security cordon around the premises. BJYM workers were stopped near Mahim by police amid apprehensions of a clash between the two groups.
Chavan subsequently expressed displeasure over the youth wing's decision to protest against Amit Thackeray's remarks, saying the party should not allow its young workers to be put in difficult situations.
The controversy began after Amit Thackeray visited the Government Polytechnic in Pune on Monday and objected to a photograph of Modi being displayed alongside those of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Dr B R Ambedkar. MNS workers subsequently removed the photograph. Two MNS workers were arrested by Pune police in connection with the incident.
This report was published from a wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.
