Sambhaji Brigade threatens to ‘gherao ministers’

24×7 police security has been provided at Purandare residence in Parvati area.

Police personnel outside the Purandare home

Even as leaders and celebrities are meeting and complimenting veteran historian and writer Shiv Shahir Babasaheb Purandare (92) following the state government’s decision to honour him with ‘Maharashtra Bhushan’ award, the Sambhaji Brigade, a right wing organisation, has upped the ante, threatening to gherao ministers and MLAs till the government revokes its move.

Purandare’s name was announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on the eve of Maharashtra Day on Thursday. Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde was supposed to announce Purandare’s name for the award at a press conference in Pune the same day, but anticipating trouble he decided against it.

Two hours later, the CM announced Purandare’s name in Mumbai. Among those who have complimented Purandare are Raj Thackeray and Lata Mangeshkar.

[related-post]

Story continues below this ad

The Sambhaji Brigade, which had kicked up a similar row nearly a decade ago when James Laine’s book was published, criticised the government’s move. “Purandare has tried to twist history and present incorrect facts about Chhatrapati Shivaji. Therefore, he does not deserve to be honoured with state’s highest award…The government should do a rethink,” claimed Santosh Shinde, president of Pune district unit of the Sambhaji Brigade.

Babasaheb Purandare

On Saturday, members of the organisation raised slogans against Fadnavis as well as Tawde outside the collectorate, holding them primarily responsible for picking Purandare for the award. “From Monday, we will gherao ministers and even MLAs across the Maharashtra and question them about the government decision to honour a wrong man.

Our agitation will continue till the government’s withdraws it move,” said Shinde. The Sambhaji Brigade said it had several grouses against Purandare, especially relating to his writings in his book, ‘Raja Shiv Chhatrapati’. Shinde alleged the book deliberately misrepresents historical facts, projects wrong characters and tries to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims.

The Sambhaji Brigade said it holds Purandare responsible for creating confusion about celebrations of Shiv Jayanti twice in Maharashtra. “The confusion that prevails in Maharashtra about celebrating the birth of Chhatrapati Shivaji is all because of Purandare. He headed a committee of historians who concluded that February 19, 1630 was the birth date of the king. However, later Purandare sided with those who clamoured for deciding Shivaji’s birthday based on ‘tithi’,” said Shinde.

Story continues below this ad

Shinde said their biggest objection against Purandare’s book relates to his claims that Jijabai, Shivaji and Dadoji Konddev had one ‘gotra’. “This is what James Laine’s book also mentions. Laine has borrowed heavily from Purandare’s book, which has tarnished the image of the king,” Shinde claimed.

The Sambhaji Brigade claimed it had challenged Purandare several times for a debate on the life and times of Shivaji, but he has refused to pick up the gauntlet.

Meanwhile, at Purandare wada in Parvati area, the state government, fearing reprisal from Sambhaji Brigade, has provided 24×7 security to the residence of the veteran historian. A police van has been stationed outside his residence. Three policemen are supposed to guard the residence.

Even as the Purandare residence was locked on Sunday afternoon, his nephew Vishwas Purandare derided the criticism of his uncle. “The book against which allegations are being levelled was published 60 years ago… What were they doing all these years ? There is nothing objectionable in the book,” he said.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories