Q: What is your opinion on the offence registered for alleged molestation against you?
A: It was nothing but a personal vendetta, hatred against me. It was a well-designed controversy. A lady was coming in front of me. It was the duty of the police officer to make a way out of the crowd. In fact, I doubt the involvement of some officers in the whole episode. It was hatched, and designed but it did not work out because luckily my video says that I was requesting the lady to move away. Why are you going into the crowd? If I would not do this probably we would have bumped into each other and that would have created problems for me. So it was a well-designed conspiracy to rope me in.
Q: Who hatched the plot?
A: I am one person who will never accuse anybody but the government as a whole should have stopped it. It is for the government to call the police commissioner and tell him not to do it. But ‘’mat karo’’ (don’t do) nobody said that is why they went ahead. That was the signal from the government to do it.
Q: What was the trigger?
A: No trigger. I was leaving the area and walking. It was a preplanned strategy. A lady in the crowd of thousands came alone and walked in front of me and she was likely to hit me and I just told her not to come in the crowd. Is a matter of a fraction of a second can molestation happen in a crowd of 1000 people?
Q: What do you have to tell about the controversy over Har Har Mahadev?
A: The offences registered in this case were bailable. Then they found some Criminal Amendment Act, 1932 and under section 7 of that Act, there is no complainant. They called me to the police station in good faith. In this case, I will clearly say the police were not involved. They had to work on orders given from the top.
Inspector called me in a friendly way, he wanted me to sign some papers. In fact, I signed those papers and was about to leave. By that time the DCP called him and told him to hold me. Inspector said that the DCP is coming to the police station and he came and said you are arrested.
There are certain norms under which the notice has to be given before the arrest. They should have given 72 hours of notice but the police did not give me half an hour. It was a completely illegal arrest and it was mentioned in the bail orders granted by the magistrate.
Q: Are you being targeted?
A: I don’t know. I never attack anybody personally. I am personally a historian for the last 25 years. I have been fighting at the forefront on the issues of distortion of history. Har Har Mahadev was the worst kind of it. You want to cut down the image of Shivaji Maharaj. Now Dadoji Konddeo is out of the picture, people have forgotten that he was the Guru of Shivaji Maharaj. We have successfully derailed that. So they want to build some another figure which
They are trying to hatch a conspiracy to cut down the Marathi leadership and Maratha to strengthen their ability to fight.
They have shown Patil selling women in the belt under the nose of Shivaji Maharaj in his area. Shivaji Maharaj was so concerned about women’s respect. He never allowed any Sardar to look at the woman. If he came to know what they had done he used to give the harshest of the punishment.
BajiPabhu Deshpande was a soldier in the army of Shivaji Maharaj but it was shown in the movie that he put a sword on Shivaji Maharaj. It was foolish.
They have released the film in various languages, and we have been able to stop it in Maharashtra. What about the movie that is being shown in TN, Karnataka, Kerala, Bengal, Odisha, people will think this is the real history as there is no book which tells you history. They will take it as a real history.
Q: Police have been telling you there was pressure from above. Can you tell from where the pressure is exerted?
A: God.
Q: Do you suspect after the change in the government, you are under its radar?
A: I don’t deny that we (CM Eknath Shinde and I) were friends. We were friends. We used to maintain a certain distance. My habit is don’t cut out anybody individually. I speak only on policies and ideologies. I don't know what has gone wrong since he became the CM. I don’t understand.
Q: Has these recent episodes affected you? Will Mr Awhad continue to be a fighter?
A: It has hurt me. I was silently observing what was going on as I was not speaking for the last two months. In spite of that targeted me and woke me from sleep. Fighter will never die, they will have to kill me.
Q: What was your mentor’s (Mr Sharad Pawar) advice?
A: My mentor was very upset when I decided to resign. He said who are you to decide on this. I will be coming and talking. I will take the decision; this won’t be your decision. The decision will be taken by me, you can address your resignation to the Speaker but that has to go through me.
I had given my resignation to be handed over to the state assembly speaker.
Q: How do you react to views expressed by a few women activists in your favour?
A: I am thankful to women like Anjali Damania, Priti Sharma Menon, Ms Sarode. Many women activists were at war with me for many many years. Ms Anjali Damania came out and openly said that Jitendra can fight, can be violent, and abuse but cannot do this. It was clear from the video that he has done nothing. This support gives you a moral boost. I am happy that not a single lady came and said this was done by Jitendra. Every woman who has tweeted has said that Jitendra cannot do this.
Q: What is your message to your Karyakartas who stood with you?
A: Karyakartas love me I love them, they love me, my house is always open, and I am easily accessible to them. We interact. There is no neta karyakarta relation. They believe that he heaves like karyakarta.
