The Shiv Sena has drawn a curtain over a controversial plaque on an Ambedkar statue recently unveiled in Nashik. Sena leader Raj Thackeray today said that the plaque against which several factions of the Republican Party of India (RPI) had protested, would be immediately removed. He said the decision was taken with Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s approval.Raj, however, said those who opposed the plaque had misinterpreted the message engraved on it and deliberately made an issue of it for political gains. ‘‘Nowhere on the plaque was it mentioned BalaSaheb and Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee were blessing Ambedkar,’’ he said. The words on the plaque were: ‘‘With the blessings of Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray and Prime Minister Vajpayee, Nashik Municipal Corporation.’’
