Mumbai: Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray on Tuesday accepted the throne that he had sent to Lokmat newspaper when it was returned to him by the Marathi daily.
Thackeray had sent the throne to the newspaper on Saturday after the daily carried a picture of him sitting on a silver throne at a Sena convention at Shirdi in 2002 to show the 'incongruity' of his stand vis-a-vis the Shirdi temple trust's proposal to obtain a golden throne for Sai Baba.
The meeting took place at the Thackeray family's residence at Matoshree in suburban Bandra at around 1330 hrs (IST).
"We did not want to hurt Thackeray's feelings in our article," Lokmat said. "Balasaheb graciously accepted the silver-plated throne from Lokmat Group Chairman Vijay Darda," the newspaper's Executive Editor Vivek Girdhari said.
"We were the first to support his crusade against the gold throne for Sai Baba. We just wanted to bring to his notice the incongruity in his stance against the golden throne and his possessing the silver throne, which we returned to him with due respect," he said.
"I accept the throne," Thackeray said. The throne will now be stripped of silver and will remain as ordinary wooden chair.
In Shirdi, a public backlash last week forced the Sai Baba Trust to scrap its plan to build a golden throne for the spiritual guru.
Thackeray had written an article opposing the move in his party mouthpiece, Samna.
"We received a few feedback from some followers of Shirdi Sai Baba asking how can Balasaheb himself sit on a throne. So we published the story," Vivek Girdhari, Executive Editor of Lokmat, said.
Caught in his own trap, Sena supremo was quick to save face. He sent a similar throne given to him by his party to the daily's office. The city office of the newspaper at Chinchpokli in central Mumbai received Thackeray's throne at 1400 hrs (IST) on Saturday.
Comments
0 comment