NCP chief Sharad Pawar has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing “shock” at the “intemperate language” used by Maharashtra Governor B.S. Koshyari in his letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
“Unfortunately Hon. Governor’s letter to the Chief Minister invokes the connotation as if written to the leader of a political party,” Pawar tweeted, after sending the letter to Modi. “In the very Preamble of our Constitution the word secular is added that equates and shields all religions and hence the chair of the Chief Minister must uphold such tenets of the Constitution,” the NCP chief added.
“I am sure he too would have noticed the intemperate language that has been used and also the kind of language used in the letter which does not behove well for a person who holds a constitutional position,” Pawar said.
He added that the CM was left with no options but to release his reply to the Governor, though he had not spoken with either of the state’s two top Constitutional dignitaries. “I thought I must share my pain with you and the public at the erosion of standards of conduct of the high Constitutional office of the Hon. Governor,” said Pawar.
In the letter, making a case for permitting people to worship in temples — closed since the lockdown was clamped on 23 March — Governor Koshyari had asked a pointed question to Thackeray: “You have been a strong votary of Hindutva… Have you turned ‘secular’ yourself, the term which you hated?”
Congress state president and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat said that the Governor’s language which was against the Constitution would be acceptable to the President of India.
“Moreover, a similar situation is there even in Goa, then why the Governor has not issued such a letter to reopen the places of worship there,” Thorat demanded.