Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Thane: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday asked Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to apologise for the “insult” of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj by the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
“Rahul Gandhi is in Kolhapur today to inaugurate a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He is remembering Shivaji Maharaj now. But he should first apologise for the insult of Shivaji Maharaj by Nehru in his book,” Fadnavis said.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi unveiled a statue of the founder of the Maratha empire in Kolhapur city of western Maharashtra.
This is the second time Fadnavis has accused Nehru of insulting the warrior king. He has claimed that Nehru had shown Shivaji Maharaj in a “poor light” in his book ‘The Discovery of India’.
The BJP leader first targeted Nehru over the issue when Congress held a protest against the collapse of a statue of Shivaji Maharaj in Sindhudurg district, nearly eight months after it was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Congress has accused Fadnavis of spreading fake narratives.
“Fadnavis should answer when he read the book. Nehru had revised his first edition and written to historians in 1936 to send him inputs to make necessary revisions. He was an intellectual giant and had accepted that the first edition was written while he was in jail and had no access to reference material,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera had said earlier.