Maharashtra Congress leaders spar over ‘proposal’ to ban Sanatan Sanstha

Chavan hit back on Wednesday. “Since some misleading news are being spread in the media regarding the Congress-led (state) government’s attempts for banning the outfit, some facts must be spelt out,” said a press communication issued by his office.

“Based on an investigation by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad and evidence collected by it, the Maharashtra government had on April 11, 2011, submitted a formal proposal to the Centre for banning Sanatan Sanstha. It must be noted that the proposal was sent much before Dabholkar’s murder, showing clearly that the government had acted suo motu on the basis of the evidence placed before it,” it said.
While P Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister when the proposal was first submitted, Shinde took over the office on July 31, 2012. A public interest litigation seeking a ban on the outfit was filed in the Bombay High Court in September 2011, where both the Centre and the state government were made respondents. Countering Shinde’s claim, Chavan has claimed that his government had affirmed its stance on banning the outfit during the court hearing, and later submitted the 1000-page report to the Centre in this regard. The two leaders had sparred on the same issue in 2016 as well.

Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal also waded into the controversy on Wednesday. “I had proposed a ban on the outfit in 2005,” he claimed, while addressing a gathering in Nashik.