As Navneet and Ravi Rana are sent to Byculla and Taloja jail respectively, NCP’s Mumbai north district working president Fahmida Hasan Khan has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah asking permission to chant Hanuman Chalisa and offer the namaz in front of PM Narendra Modi’s house
MP Navneet Rana and her husband, MLA Ravi Rana, were arrested on Saturday after they gave a call for the chanting of Hanuman Chalisa outside Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence ‘Matoshree’. PTI
The Hanuman Chalisa storm refuses to die down in Maharashtra.
After Independent MP Navneet Rana and MLA husband Ravi Rana grabbed headlines and were subsequently arrested for making threats of reciting Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence, comes a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader’s request to read out prayers of each religion outside the prime minister’s residence at Lok Kalyan Marg in the national capital.
We trace the row back and how it has moved from the Ranas to the NCP leader.
NCP leader’s new request
The NCP’s Mumbai north district working president Fahmida Hasan Khan has written to Home Minister Amit Shah requesting permission for chanting prayers of every religion in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Kalyan Marg residence in Delhi.
Khan’s letter, which she shared on her Twitter page, read, “I, Fahmida Hasan Khan of Kandivali, Mumbai, Maharashtra, request you to grant permission to offer Namaz, recite Hanuman Chalisa, Navkar Mantra, Guru Granth and Novena in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence. Kindly let me know the date and time.”
She added, in a veiled jibe, “If Hindutva, Jainism elevates for country’s benefit to reduce inflation, unemployment, starvation, I’d like to do it.”
The Rana row
Incidentally, Khan’s request to pray outside the prime minister’s house comes when Navneet Rana, the MP from Amravati in Maharashtra, and her husband Ravi Rana, the MLA from Badnera in Amravati, moved the Bombay High Court seeking a cancellation of the FIR against them in the Hanuman Chalisa incident.
The two were arrested on Saturday by the Mumbai Police on Saturday after they gave a call for the chanting of Hanuman Chalisa outside Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence ‘Matoshree’ in Mumbai, which triggered angry protests by Shiv Sainiks.
The leaders were arrested under Section 353 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with assault or use of criminal force against a public servant in the execution of his duty and sedition.
They were both remanded to judicial custody — Navneet Rana was sent to the Byculla women’s jail in Mumbai while her husband husband Ravi Rana was taken to Taloja jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai.
Ravi is a seasoned politician from Amravati and has been elected three times from Badnera on an Independent ticket.
News18 has reported that Ravi won the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls from Badnera in 2009, 2014 and 2019. Between 2014 and 2019, he was close to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government run by Devendra Fadnavis, the then chief minister and now leader of the Opposition.
On the other hand, His wife, Navneet, is a first-time MP from the Amravati (SC) seat. The former actor won the Lok Sabha seat in 2019, defeating Shiv Sena veteran Anand Adsul.
Navneet, who was born in a Punjabi family and raised in Mumbai, has shared the silver screen with actors from the South, such as Captain Vijayakanth and Mammootty.
Indian Express reports that a meeting with Yoga guru Baba Ramdev changed her life. She met Ravi at one of the Yog Shivir organised by the yoga proponent and tied the knot in 2011 at a mass wedding ceremony organised by the Yoga guru alongside over 3,000 couples.
The couple has no specific political affiliations and is fluid, a feature that has helped them grab power in Amravati.
For instance, while Ravi has been close to the BJP in the prior dispensation of Devendra Fadnavis, Navneet managed to get a ticket from NCP, to take on sitting Shiv Sena MP Anandrao Adsul from Amravati, in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
In the 2019 polls, she once again contested the polls, as an Independent, but received support from the NCP. The row right now shows that they are backing the BJP this time around.
Following their arrest, Shiv Sena in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ on Monday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its desperation to oust the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government is orchestrating the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ row, as per an ANI report.
While we are unsure of what happens to the Ranas, one thing is certain, the noise on the Hanuman Chalisa issue is bound to grow louder as the elections for Mumbai’s civic body approaches faster.
With inputs from agencies
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