No coercive action against Rane: Maha govt | Economic Times

Union minister Narayan Rane on Wednesday was given protection by the Bombay High Court as the Maharashtra government said that it would not take any ‘coercive action’ against the minister till the next hearing on September 17. The protection for Rane is only for the Nashik case and not for other FIRs. Rane was arrested on Tuesday for his comments against chief minister Uddhav Thackeray before being released on bail late on Tuesday night. Rane had approached the HC seeking to quash all the FIRs against him.On Wednesday, the state government counsel Amit Desai wanted Rane to give an undertaking that he would not make any statements against the government or the CM. Rane’s counsel refused to give such an undertaking.Rane, who addressed a press conference after the HC relief, said he had not done any wrong. “What did I say that made them so angry. I will not say that word again till the court’s judgement on it… Whoever has no pride in the country will (obviously) not remember the country’s Independence,”said Rane.The Union minister alleged that Thackeray has been using bad language to attack his opponents. “Thackeray called Union home minister Amit Shah shameless. Thackeray even said he was using unparliamentary words deliberately to describe Shah,” Rane said.Rane added Thackeray had said that he wanted to hit Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath with slippers. He also pointed out that Uddhav Thackeray had said that the party would break the faces of those who would attack the Sena Bhavan and questioned why such a hulla ballo was made about his utterances. Sena has admitted that Uddhav did speak of slapping the UP CM, but claimed that he was not in a constitutional post.Rane’s arrest and his release on bail is going to heat up the political climate in the state. Mumbai and 9 other civic bodies are going to polls early next year and by all accounts the elections would be as contentious and probably as violent as the West Bengal polls. Already, the CBI is probing former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and the I-T department has asked the Election Commission to disqualify Shiv Sena MLA Yamini Jadhav over discrepancies over her election affidavit. The Maharashtra government is also hitting back with the state anti-corruption bureau carrying out raids at the Pune Municipal Corporation and the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, both with the BJP.