Won't tolerate if anyone calls Shivaji Maharaj a looter: Fadnavis attacks NCP (SP) leader

Mumbai: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said Shivaji Maharaj's description as a looter won't be tolerated, a day after NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil claimed the Maratha king had sought extortion from Surat for the expansion of Swarajya.

Fadnavis also appealed to Indian scholars to unite and debunk the "incorrect portrayal" of the founder of the Maratha empire by English historians.

Shivaji Maharaj is being viewed from the prism of English historians, the BJP leader said. He called for scholars to rectify the mistakes wherein the 17th-century king was being wrongly portrayed.

"My only point is my king was never a looter. I will not tolerate anyone calling my king a looter. Maharaj was never a plunderer. He never bothered a common man," Fadnavis told reporters in Mumbai.

Hitting out at the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), Fadnavis said the ones (leaders) whose dispensation was dubbed an extortionist government, will only think about extortion.

He was responding to NCP (SP) Maharashtra unit president Jayant Patil's remarks that Shivaji Maharaj had demanded extortion from Surat.

"Chhatrapati Shivaji had informed Surat that we (Maratha army) need extortion of a specific amount," Patil said at an event on Friday.

He said Shivaji Maharaj didn't get the amount he had demanded, instead a messenger was sent by Mughals to attack the Maratha king. The messenger was later killed.

This incident led to the looting of Surat by Shivaji Maharaj, Patil had said.

Patil also said looters commit the act to fill in their coffers whereas Shivaji Maharaj brought the wealth to Swarajya.

The 1664 battle of Surat, fought between Shivaji Maharaj and Mughal commander Inayat Khan, leading to the defeat of the latter by the Maratha army, was raked up recently by Fadnavis amid a sharp war of words between the BJP and MVA over the collapse of Shivaji's statue in Sindhudurg district.

Fadnavis had accused the Congress of teaching wrong history of the Surat battle all these years portraying Shivaji Maharaj as the one who plundered Surat.

"Maharaj didn't loot Surat. He only took back Swarajya's treasure from appropriate people," Fadnavis had said, evoking allegations of the bid to "change the history" by the BJP from the Opposition Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), and Congress.