The Uddhav Thackeray government over the past few months has displayed an unwavering penchant for U-Turn as the three-party alliance flip-flops its way through governance. After stating that the Maharashtra government would investigate India’s jewels – Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has now backtracked as he now claims that the state will only probe the role of BJP IT Cell Chief and not the celebrities.
Shiv Sena which likes to play the Marathi Asmita card whenever cornered, stunned its core voter base after the Uddhav Thackeray government decided to investigate two of India’s shining jewels – Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar for tweets calling out for unity against foreign interference in India’s internal affairs.
Unsurprisingly, this led to a massive public outrage which, perhaps, forced the Maharashtra government to take a major U-Turn. State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has claimed that his earlier statements where he claimed that the celebs would be investigated were ‘misconstrued’.
“What I had said was that we would investigate the BJP IT cell. It has been wrongly claimed that we would be investigating Lata Mangeshkar, Sachin Tendulkar. We hold Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar in high esteem. There is no question of investigating such people,” said Deshmukh.
He added, “We would be investigating the BJP IT cell on whether they gave any script. Our preliminary probe shows the involvement of the BJP IT cell chief and the role of 12 influencers. Further probe is on.”
Last week, Maharashtra Home Minister Deshmukh assured Congress’ Sachin Sawant over a Zoom call that the state intelligence department will probe whether Sachin Tendulkar and others were pressurised to tweet by the Centre.
Commenting on a Congress delegation’s demand for a state probe on the celebrities, like Sachin and Lata, who had tweeted in favour of the farm laws, Deshmukh back then had reportedly agreed with his alliance partner’s claim.
Maharashtra Home Minister Deshmukh had said, “How did they all come together at the same time to tweet, the wordings are also the same. We will get this investigated.”
The entire country saw how Shiv Sena indulged in a bucketful of PR at the peak of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic at a time when Mumbai was fast becoming the virus capital of the world. The earlier decision to investigate the country’s two Bharat Ratnas was always going to invite public backlash.
Sachin Tendulkar had tweeted, “India’s sovereignty cannot be compromised. External forces can be spectators but not participants. Indians know India and should decide for India. Let’s remain united as a nation.”
India’s sovereignty cannot be compromised. External forces can be spectators but not participants.
Indians know India and should decide for India. Let's remain united as a nation.#IndiaTogether #IndiaAgainstPropaganda— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) February 3, 2021
It is a sorry state of affairs in Maharashtra where even statements calling for the country to be united can land you in trouble. Yet facing a massive backlash, the Maharashtra government was forced to take a U-turn from carrying out an investigation on Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar.