A day after music director Hridaynath Mangeshkar said he was against building a memorial for his sister, the late Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar, at Shivaji Park, the Maharashtra Congress came out in support of the family on Saturday.
State Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant said that the sprawling park was established during the British Rule by the erstwhile Bombay Municipal Corporation in 1925 and named as Shivaji Park ahead of the great Maratha warrior’s 300th birth anniversary.
“Taking into consideration the sentiments of the Marathi people, the then British Government had allowed the name and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s equestrian statue was also installed there,” Sawant said. He pointed out that since the park is already a monument dedicated to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, then how can another memorial in the name of Lata Didi be erected there.
“On one hand, the BJP is playing dirty politics in the name of a memorial for Lata Mangeshkar, on the other, their own party activist is filing a PIL in the court demanding there should not be a memorial there. The BJP had resorted to similar dual-politics during the issue of reservations for Marathas and OBCs,” Sawant said.
