No sale of Laine book in Maha: Sena

SHIVAJI BOOK TANGLE: Bal Thackrey has said that the sales of the book will not be allowed.

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Mumbai: American historian James Laine's controversial book on Chhartapati Shivaji - Shivaji: A Hindu King in Islamic India - is back in the news, with the Bombay High Court lifting the three-year ban on the book.

Laine had stirred a controversy with sections of the book said to contain objectionable personal remarks.

Now Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackrey has said that the sales of the book will not be allowed and the Maharashtra government has decided to challenge the Bombay High Court's order in Supreme Court demanding re-imposition of the ban.

Says Deputy CM, Maharashtra, R R Patil, "It is unfortunate that the High Court has done this. We will fight this order."

The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, where James Laine did his research, was ransacked in 2004 by the Sambhaji Brigade. Now sympathisers of the Sambhaji Brigade warn of serious consequences if the book reappears.

Says the convener of Shivsangram Party, Vinayak Mete, "The book hurt the sentiments of Maharashtrians and the book should be banned."

Sharad Pawar's NCP had made a political issue out of Laine's book in the last state Assembly elections with allegations of RSS supplying controversial information to James Laine which was twisted and used in the book.

However, the book had been withdrawn over three years ago and the publishers have no plans for a re-print, so all that is likely to follow is a protracted legal battle with little or no political fallout.