Political controversy has broken out in Maharashtra regarding the naming of the Mumbai-Ghatkopar-Mankhurd link in Mumbai. In a letter written to Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena politician and Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai South Central constituency, Rahul Shewale has requested to name the link after Khwaja Gareeb Nawaz- Moinuddin Chishti Ajmeri.
Abu Azmi, President of Samajwadi Party's (SP) Maharashtra unit, in a letter written to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President and Rajya Sabha MP, Sharad Pawar has also requested to name the link as "Sultan ul Hind Khwaja Garib Nawaz".
During the medieval era, Sufis acted as the spiritual and moral supporter of the bloody Jihad waged by the Turkish Islamic invaders against the native Hindu population in Kashmir, the plains of northern India, Bengal and other parts of the subcontinent as well. Historical records reveal that the much revered Moinuddin Chishti, the Khawaja of the Ajmer Dargah had a deep-seated hatred towards Hindus. He was among the very first Sufis to arrive in India when the Islamic Sultanate was established in Delhi.
Chishti had accompanied Sultan Muhammad Ghori to India in his campaign against the last Hindu Emperor of Delhi, Prithviraj Chauhan. In Ajmer, Chishti reportedly desecrated the cluster of temples located on the banks of Anasagar lake. Followers of Khwaja were notorious for slaughtering cows near a prominent temple in Ajmer, where the local Raja and Hindus used to pray and cook kebabs from the cow’s meat to show their contempt towards the local Hindus.
Bharatiya Janata Party on the other hand has proposed to name the flyover after the great warrior and founder of the Maratha Empire, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. While targeting the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi state government, BJP has asked whether Shiv Sena has renounced its Hindutva ideology. In a tweet, BJP MLA from Ghatkopar West constituency of Mumbai, Ram Kadam stated that while BJP has demanded to name the fly over after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj from day one, Shiv Sena is now opposing the demand as it has ditched its ideology for vote bank politics. Kadam further questioned where is Shiva Sena's Hindutva?
Earlier, a poster celebrating Tipu Sultan's anniversary, the tyrant Islamic ruler of Mysore, who butchered Hindus in Karnataka and Malabar region of Kerala and dessecrated Hindu temples was published by the Mira Bhayandar unit of the Yuva Sena, the youth wing of Shiv Sena.
