Shivaji row: BJP discovers Nehru

MUMBAI: Maharashtra''s home minister and state NCP president RR Patil has warned that a serious law and order situation could develop in the state vis-a-vis American scholar James Laine''s controversial book Shivaji: Hindu king in Islamic India.
The Democratic Front government has banned the book, alleging that it contains slanderous remarks against Shivaji and his mother Jijamata.
The Sambhaji Brigade, an organisation of Maratha youths which allegedly enjoys the NCP''s patronage, had even vandalised the reputed Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune in January since Laine did his research there.
But much to the embarrassment of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, Prime Minister AB Vajpayee had opposed the ban on the book a few days later, when he suggested that the views contained in the book should be countered ideologically.
The NCP had protested mildly then, but with elections round the corner it has decided to take on Mr Vajpayee.
The NCP''s gameplan is aimed at embarrassing the saffron parties which claim to be the sole inheritors of Shivaji''s ideology.
Taking on the NCP, state BJP president Gopinath Munde has joined the battle and demanded a ban on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru''s classic Discovery of India, saying a 1986 edition of the book contains remarks highly derogatory of the Maratha king.
Mr Munde said these remarks were included in the first edition of the book but were expunged later.
But the 1986 edition, released by Rajiv Gandhi, had repeated these remarks, he said, noting that the Congress and the NCP had never objected to this edition.