Will Ask for Audit of All Temples in Next Parliament Session: Priyanka Chaturvedi at CNN-News18 Townhall

Asked about the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) camp’s position on freeing temples from state control, the party’s Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi said on Friday that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should first introduce a bill on the issue in Parliament.

Speaking at the CNN-News18 Town Hall in Mumbai about the alleged usage of animal fat in the preparation of laddus being offered as “prasadam" at Andhra Pradesh’s Tirumala Tirupati temple, Chaturvedi said anyone found responsible must receive exemplary punishment.

“In the upcoming session of Parliament, I will ask for an audit of all temples across the country," she said.

This is a matter of politics for the BJP and not the Shiv Sena (UBT), said Chaturvedi. She added that the BJP uses issues like “freeing temples", Uniform Civil Code, and “one nation, one election" as red herrings to divert people’s attention and doesn’t follow through.

Chaturvedi also said that a recent remark of Lok Sabha’s leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi in the United States that “the fight in India is about whether a Sikh person would be allowed to wear a kada and go to a gurdwara or not" could be meant for shock and awe. The statement by Rahul, who is an MP of Shiv Sena (UBT) ally Congress, sparked a political slugfest, with BJP leaders saying that he defamed India on foreign land.

“When the farm laws were being protested, the likes of now BJP MP Kangana Ranaut called them terrorists and Khalistanis…She’s a trial balloon for her party," said Chaturvedi.

Despite the split in the original Shiv Sena, the cadre and people in Maharashtra are with Uddhav Thackeray, she said. Chaturvedi also said that the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government brought the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana after the ruling Mahayuti alliance suffered setbacks in the April-June Lok Sabha polls.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader also rejected charges that her party tried to throttle development in Mumbai.

“The coastal road project was envisioned by us, and if they would have allowed us to complete our tenure, we would have completed it," she said.

Chaturvedi also said that her party was not against the metro line going through the Aarey forest but the site chosen for the car shed because it would endanger the forest.