Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi in front of Meenatai’s statue at Shivaji Park on Monday. (Fotocorp)

Mumbai, July 10: The row over the desecration of the statue of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s wife Meenatai rocked both Houses of the Maharashtra Assembly today.

Bal Thackeray, who kept mum on Sunday, set the tone for the attack on the government, trying to link last week’s clash in Bhiwandi with Sunday’s desecration in an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna. He alleged that the fanatical forces which caused the clash had a hand in the desecration and that the government had not taken note of the inflammatory speeches made by Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi, though Sena workers were arrested for Sunday’s violence.

In the Legislative Assembly, Shiv Sena’s leader of Opposition Ramdas Kadam moved an adjournment notice as Sena and BJP members slammed the Congress-NCP government for “law and order failure”.

Kadam alleged that the miscreants also insulted idols of Ganesh and Hanuman and a photograph of Shirdi Saibaba installed near Meenatai’s bust. “The sentiments of Hindus have been hurt?. Who are these anti-social elements? What was their motive?” he asked.

The Sena leader clarified that his party did not organise a bandh and that the protests were spontaneous.

Referring to the Bhiwandi clash in which two policemen were hacked, the BJP’s Gopinath Munde asked why the government failed to act against Azmi despite an intelligence report stating that he tried to fan communal feelings.

The uproar peaked when the home minister, NCP’s R.R. Patil, made a statement hinting that the Opposition would be in trouble if the names of the miscreants were revealed. He said police had taken appropriate action by arresting 38 people in the Bhiwandi case, while 1,734 people were arrested for Sunday’s violence.

The police said sketches of three suspects of Sunday’s desecration had been drawn based on descriptions collated from local residents.

Patil reminded the Opposition that the Sena-BJP had issued a government resolution according to which the responsibility of protection of statues rested with the organisations that installed them.

“In this case,” he added, “it is on the land allotted by the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which is controlled by the Shiv Sena) and it is the Sena which had erected it?. You cannot shirk responsibility.”