Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar K. Bawankule on Thursday, September 8, 2022, accused former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for beautification of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon’s grave and demanded an unconditional apology from the former.
“The beautification of the terrorist’s grave was taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic. He (Mr. Thackeray) had no time for the common man and the Maha Vikas Aghadi government had helped with the beautification of the grave. This is one among many incidents, which exposed that Mr. Thackeray, had compromised with Hindutva to protect his position as Chief Minister,” Mr. Bawankule said.
“During COVID, they had no time to meet people but gave nod for beautification of his (Memon) grave. The whole State and country are ashamed of this act,” he said. Mr. Thackeray must answer why he compromised with Hindutva, and it is highly impossible that such an event happened, and he as the Chief Minister, was not aware of it, the State BJP chief said. “I’m sure the intelligence sleuths must have briefed about this incident to Mr. Thackeray. To save his chair, he compromised and made adjustments to his Hindutva,” he said, adding that the former Chief Minister must apologise to Maharashtra for allowing the beautification of a terrorist’s grave.
Shinde-Fadnavis urged to probe
Further, Mr. Bawankule requested Chief Minster Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to conduct an inquiry and take legal action against those who supported or helped in the beautification of Memon’s grave. “They must be punished,” he said. The grave at Bada Kabarastan in the Marine Lines here was beautified with white marble and LED lights. However, workers at the graveyard maintained that the whole graveyard was illuminated during Shad-e-Baraat.
On Wednesday night, BJP MLA Ram Kadam shared the photographs of the grave and tweeted “Udhav Thackeray was the Chief Minister. During that period, the grave of the dreaded terrorist Yakub Memon, who carried out the 1993 bombing in Mumbai at the behest of Pakistan, turned into a grave. This is their love for Mumbai, this is their patriotism? Sharad Pawar and Rahul Gandhi including Udhav Thackeray apologise to the people of Mumbai.”
