Various Hindu organisations on Tuesday voiced their opposition to a picture appearing in the Balbharti textbook for Class IV that depicts Chhatrapati Shivaji ‘embracing’ Afzal Khan.
Members of several Hindu groups, in a press conference on Tuesday, said that instead of a picture of Chhatrapati Shivaji slaying Afzal Khan, the Mumbai – Balbharati (the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research) has included a misleading picture of the Maratha warrior about to embrace Afzal Khan.
The members, including Sanatan Sanstha spokesperson Abhay Vartak, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti spokesperson Uday Dhuri and president of Raigad Sanvardhan Pratishthan Rajendra Sawant, demanded immediate removal of the picture, while alleging that attempts were being made to alter the history of Chhatrapati Shivaji and depict him as secular.
