Narayan Rane faces arrest as court rejects bail plea over his ‘Slapgate’ remark against Uddhav Thackeray

@the_news_21

Mumbai: A court in Ratnagiri district in the Konkan region on Tuesday rejected Union Minister Narayan Rane’s anticipatory bail application seeking to stall his arrest in connection with his alleged derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The Union Minister has since moved the Bombay High Court challenging the lower court order and the matter has been posted for hearing tomorrow. Till then Rane will be placed under custody of the local police.

The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and a bitter critic of the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray kicked up a major row over allegedly derogatory remarks against the Chief Minister. Sporadic incidents of clashes between Shiv Sena and BJP cadres and Sena cadres’ demonstrations were witnessed across the state.

The Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Narayan Rane faces possible arrest over his controversial remarks during his ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’, which he launched last week against the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. 

High drama was seen in Ratnagiri when the Sangameshwar police went to arrest Rane, which led to heated exchanges between the Minister’s aides and authorities. 

“What crime has Rane committed. This is a lawless state…we told the Superintendent of Police that we are ready to come down to the jail if the police had a proper warrant. But the police claim they are under tremendous pressure. Is this rule by law or Goondaraj,” said former legislator Pramod Jathar and senior BJP leader from Konkan. 

At least four FIRs, including one in Pune by the Yuva Sena (the Shiv Sena’s youth wing), one in Nashik and two in Mahad in Raigad district have been registered against Narayan Rane following his controversial statement in which he allegedly said he would have slapped Thackeray for forgetting the number of years of India’s Independence during flag hoisting on August 15. 

The Nashik Police on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant against Rane for his statements while Shiv Sainiks are up in arms against their party’s bitterest critic. 

“The State’s economy and all businesses are in turmoil owing to this man (Thackeray) pathetic management of affairs…more than 1.5 lakh persons have lost their lives due to the State’s mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic. There was a shortage of vaccines, no medical staff, no doctors. The State’s health infrastructure was in a shambolic state… Does he (Chief Minister Thackeray) even have the right to speak on anything… He ought to keep a secretary as he does not even know it was the 75^th anniversary of India’s Independence and was asking someone backstage (on Independence Day). I would have given him a tight slap had I been there forgetting the number of years of India’s Independence,” said Rane. 

Against protocol

While BJP Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis admitted that Rane ought to have shown restraint in his statements, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil said it was “against protocol” for the State government to arrest a Union Minister. 

 “All this arrest drama has been contrived by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government to divert the public’s attention from the fact that Rane has been receiving overwhelming support in the Konkan region during his Jan Ashirwad Yatra,” Patil claimed. 

He further said that Rane’s flamboyant style of speech was no secret, observing that even in the past, Rane had allegedly called Thackeray a chor (thief) when the latter was not the CM.

“I wonder who is advising the Chief Minister to do all this… As far as maintaining the decorum of the post is concerned, we (the BJP), too, have a long list of how those holding government and legislative posts have misused and abused power to support their respective parties… It is not a question of justifying Rane’s remark. But then ‘derogatory’ remarks made by leaders from the three ruling coalition parties have gone unnoticed without inviting any action…this is not fair,” Patil said. 

The induction of Narayan Rane in the Union cabinet last month during Prime Minister Modi’s mega-reshuffle is being seen as an aggressive move on the BJP’s part to decimate the Sena in the Konkan.  

Rane, a former Shiv Sainik who is also an important face of the Maratha community. His ‘Sena baiting’ has grown even more strident since he exited the Congress in 2017.  

However, Rane’s entry into the BJP was not smooth and was a bone of contention between the BJP and the Sena who were in alliance in the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis government of 2014-19.   

The Konkan strongman had accused the Sena of deliberately delaying his entry given the mutual antipathy between himself and Uddhav Thackeray.   

In September 2017, Rane had severed his more than a decade long association with the Congress with the expectation that the BJP, which is weak in the Konkan belt, would welcome him with open arms. At the time of his exit, Rane had vowed to deplete the ranks of his former parties, the Shiv Sena and the Congress.  

Up until the present moment, the Konkan strongman has repeatedly launched vitriolic attacks on Thackeray, berating the latter’s capabilities as party head and then as Chief Minister of the State.   

Rane, the once Shiv Sena strongman-turned -Congressman, who ruled his fiefdom of Kudal in Sindhudurg district which he held for six terms as MLA, had been comprehensively trounced by the Sena’s Vaibhav Naik in the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections – a defeat he has neither forgotten nor forgiven.