Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

A day after The Indian Express report, the Hindutva groups have now taken a U-turn about giving “Hindutva Shourya Puraskar (Bravery award)” to Dhananjay Desai alias Bhai, chief of Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS), who is currently in jail in connection with the murder of Muslim techie Mohsin Shaikh.

As per the plan set initially, Desai’s wife Rasika was to collect the award on his behalf at the hands of none other than Pramodi Mutalik of Shriram Sena, during a function – Shivpratap Din Utsav — organised mainly by the Samasta Hindu Aghadi, involving various Hindutva groups in Pune, to remember the heroic victory of legendary king Shivaji Maharaj over Adilshahi warrior Afzal Khan. The program is being conducted at the New English School Tilak road on Sunday evening.

But the plans were changed at an urgent basis as media persons started calling Milind Ekbote of Samasta Hindu Aghadi, the main organiser of the function, following The Indian Express report.

Ekbote now said that Dhananjay Desai’s wife is not willing to accept the honour as he is in jail. “She said it was not good to accept the honour when her husband is in jail. She said the Hindutva Shourya Puraskar should be given to Dhananjay Desai after he is released from jail. We respect her feelings and so no Hindutva Shourya Puraskar will be given on the Shivpratap Din Utsav. But the rest of the function will take place. Pramodji Mutalik will deliver a speech. There would be cultural program as well. And we would be felicitating advocate Nandu Phadke with Gopinath Pant Bokil Puraskar on the occasion.”

Ekbote had earlier said that they Desai was being honoured for uniting a large number of Hindu youths and created awareness among them on cow slaughter and love jihad. Ekbote maintained that Desai has been falsely arrested in the Mohsin Shaikh murder case only because he is a firebrand Hindutva leader. Ekbote said honor had nothing to do with the murder case. “Desai is in jail for over four months for no reason. But he is still committed to the cause of Hindutva,” he said.

Desai is among the 21 HRS activists arrested by the Pune police in connection with the murder of a 28-year-old Muslim techie Moshin Sadiq Shaikh in Hadapsar on June 2, this year following the communal clashes that started due to the spread of derogatory pictures of Maratha King Shivaji and Bal Thackeray uploaded on a Facebook (FB) profile.