BJP raking up 400-year-old issue: Uddhav Thackeray on Aurangzeb controversy

Slamming the BJP for raking up a “400-year-old issue”, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said the government should raze Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's tomb in Maharashtra's Khultabad.

Thackeray was speaking to reporters on the Vidhan Bhawan premises, a day after protests against Aurangzeb's tomb triggered violence in Nagpur, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' home town.

“Raze Aurangzeb's tomb immediately, but do call Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu when that happens,” Thackeray said. He slammed the BJP-led government for raking up a "400-year-old" issue.

Observers said the reference to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Naidu and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar - both key BJP allies – was in the backdrop of the importance of Muslim votes for Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JDU in elections in their states.

“If the BJP has an issue with green colour, it should remove the green colour from their flag,” Thackeray said. “You tried to malign our party's saffron flag and teach us Hindutva,” he added.

Thackeray said Aurangzeb was born in Gujarat and was vanquished and died in Maharashtra.

Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray said the BJP is "shameless" as the violence took place in the hometown of CM Fadnavis.

"Sadly, when the BJP cannot govern, they resort to violence, riots and this is their set formula in every state. They are trying to dig up the history of someone who lived 300-400 years ago, but they cannot speak about the future. They cannot speak about the present,” he said.

Aditya Thackeray accused the BJP of orchestrating the tomb controversy to distract from the state government's failures. He claimed the BJP was trying to "make a Manipur of Maharashtra".