(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.) NCP leader Sharad Pawar has weighed in on the spat between Maharashtra Governor B.S. Koshyari and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray over the former's letter to the latter over reopening temples in the State. Mr. Pawar addressed the Prime Minister directly on the issue, saying the 'kind of language used' was shocking. In his letter to Mr. Thackeray, Mr. Koshyari had asked whether the CM was not opening temples in the State because he had 'suddenly turned secular'. In his reply to the Governor, the CM had lambasted the Governor for equating secularism to opening of temples. Mr. Pawar also questioned the Governor using a constitutional tenet as a political attack. The Governor's reference to secularism ruffles feathers particularly due to the recent political realignment in Maharashtra. Mr. Thackeray's party, Shiv Sena allied with the Congress and the NCP to form the government in Maharashtra after last year's election. Shiv Sena had been a long-term ally of the BJP and has used the Hindutva plank considerably in the past. The Governor mentioned this in his letter, saying Mr. Thackeray had been a 'strong votary of Hindutva' in the past. The CM responded that his Hindutva did not need anyone's certification. The Governor-CM spat comes amid several other Centre-State standoffs that have sprouted after the change of guard in Maharashtra. The Bhima-Koregaon case being handed over to the NIA and the granting of Y+ category security to actor Kangana Ranaut after she locked horns with the State government are some of these. This political context, and the strong words used in the Governor-CM spat, are what that make this story important. |
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