Loudspeaker row: Maharashtra govt to hold all-party meet on Monday

Attempt being made to create communal strife in order to impose President’s Rule in state, says Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil

Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil (Facebook @Dwalsepatil)

The Maharashtra government will be calling an all-party meeting on April 25 on the issue of loudspeakers at religious places and to ensure that there are no law-and-order issues in the state, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil said. He added that an attempt was being made to create communal strife in Maharashtra with a view to impose President’s Rule in the state.

“The Maharashtra government has called for an all-party meeting on April 25. We have invited two leaders each from prominent political parties in the state to discuss the Supreme Court’s 2005 judgment on loudspeakers. We hope to discuss the stand that the state needs to take on the issue of loudspeakers,” he said on Saturday.

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He further said that there was an attempt to vitiate the peace of the state. “There is an attempt being made to vitiate the situation by creating communal strife in the state. This is being done with an attempt to foist President’s Rule in Maharashtra. However, we and the law enforcement agencies are well equipped to handle such things,” Patil added.

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Meanwhile, reacting to the agitation by Shiv Sena workers after MLA Ravi Rana and his wife MP Navneet Rana said the duo would recite Hanuman Chalisa outside Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s house, Patil said that elected representatives need to conform to the law and behave in a manner which does not disturb peace in the society.

“All those who want to read Hanuman Chalisa can read it inside their homes,” Walse Patil said in reaction to the Ranas’ insistence on reading the Hanuman Chalisa outside Thackeray’s Bandra residence.

He also said that the Ranas are “puppets being used to malign the image of Maharashtra”.

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