Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Devendra Fadnavis has demanded the state government to reopen temples. Taking a dig at the Uddhav Thackeray government on the issue, Fadnavis asked the government to show at least half of the enthusiasm shown for reopening liquor shops.
“For reopening temples in Maharashtra, the government should show at least half of the enthusiasm shown while allowing liquor shops to operate. The decision-making process will speed up only when the government and its ministers pay attention,” Fadnavis said while speaking to the media during his visit to Kolhapur.
Fadnavis visited Satara district to review the COVID-19 situation. He said that it was strange to see Maharashtra government not taking a decision to reopen the temples but has allowed the shopping malls, markets and liquor shops to operate in the state.
The BJP leader further asked, “why is it that the state government does not allow the opening of places of worship, but allows malls, markets and other industries to operate?”
The BJP in Maharashtra recently staged a statewide agitation against the Uddhav Thackeray government demanding to reopen temples in the state. The BJP workers, corporators, MLAs and office-bearers including Chandrakant Patil participated in the ‘ghantanand andolan’ or bell-ringing agitation.
They gathered outsides temples across Maharashtra and chanted hymns demanding the state government to open temples. Patil informed that the agitation was held outside 10,000 temples across the state.
Meanwhile, AIMIM MP from Aurangabad Imtiyaz Jaleel said that he will open mosques on September 2 even if the move was against the ruled imposed by the state.
On August 21, the Supreme Court has allowed the opening of three Jain temples in Mumbai for devotees to offer Paryushan prayers. Reacting to this, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar has demanded the Maharashtra government to allow reopening of Vitthal temples in Pandharpur for Warakaris.
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