NCP leader wants to recite Chalisa & namaz outside PM Modi house; Sena says, BJP desperate to oust MVA govt

Even as Ranas – Amravati MP Navneet Kaur Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana – denied seeking bail, a Mumbai based NCP leader has said that she wants to recite Hanuman Chalisa outside PM Modi’s house in Delhi.

Ranas were arrested by the Maharashtra police when they forcibly tried to recite Hanuman Chalisa at Matoshri – CM Uddhav Thackery’s parental house.

The couple was slapped with sedition charges. Shiv Sena said that Ranas were used by the BJP to create the Chalisa controversy. The Amravati MP was sent to Byculla women’s jail, while her husband was taken to Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai.

The couple has also moved the Bombay High Court seeking cancellation of FIRs filed against them.

Meanwhile, Fahmida Hassan Khan said she wished to chant the Namaz, Hanuman Chalisa, Namokar Mantra (Jain chant), Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh scripture) and other religious texts outside the PM residence in the national capital.

Intensifying Chalisa politics, Fahmida Khan has written a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah also.

In her letter, Fahmida Hassan Khan said that if her reading the holy scriptures of all religions would help the country to reduce unemployment and inflation, she would like to go ahead with the same.

“I have asked the home minister for permission to chant prayers of every religion in front of PM Modi’s residence. If Hindutva, Jainism elevates the country to reduce inflation, unemployment, starvation, I will do,” ANI quoted her as saying.

Khan’s appeal to recite religious texts outside the prime minister’s residence is being seen as a reply to BJP’s Chalisa politics started by Ranas.

Supporting Khan indirectly, the Shiv Sena in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ alleged that the BJP is desperate to oust the MVA government and used Ranas to create the controversy.

“The recent ruckus stirred up by the BJP in the name of Hindutva cannot be supported...the BJP is behind this (controversy). They had planned to disturb the peace of Mumbai using (MP-MLA) Rana couple and everything happened on their instructions that outraged the Shiv Sena workers, and the couple was not allowed to step outside their house,” the Saamana editorial said.

Slamming Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana for their changing political affiliations, the Shiv Sena said that “there is no assurance over the ideological affiliations of this couple”.

MP Navneet Rana had opposed lawmakers who were taking oath in the name of Lord Ram in Parliament, it said, adding “it is astonishing that today the BJP is dancing around at the behest of the said MP over the issues like Hanuman Chalisa and other Hindutava issues”.

“Mrs Rana contested the Lok Sabha election from Amravati on the basis of a fake caste certificate. Navneet Kaur Rana and her father Harbhajan Singh Kundless submitted fake documents for getting a caste certificate. Amravati Lok Sabha is a reserved seat and to contest election from that seat Rana got a fake caste certificate,” said Saamana.