AFTER the Pimpri-Chinchwad BJP unit asked him to resign over his alleged derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shripal Sabnis, author and president of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, on Saturday remained defiant while asserting that he “will not apologise even if BJP members hang him”.

In fact, Sabnis, who has authored 29 books, filed a complaint with Umarga police in Marathwada after receiving alleged death threats from two BJP members. Sabnis, a Puneite, had gone to Marathwada to deliver a speech at an academic institute. “I received two phone calls around 1 pm today. The callers asked me to apologise for my remarks against (PM) Narendra Modi. They said if I do not apologise, they will kill me,” Sabnis told this paper on Saturday evening. Sabnis said it will be now the responsibility of the state government and the chief minister to ensure his safety.

On Friday, BJP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad unit burnt an effigy of Sabnis, who had made the remarks during a speech at a college in Akurdi Pimpri-Chinchwad on Thursday. “I do not accept Modi under whose tenure the Gujarat carnage happened… but I have no problem with this Modi, who talks of Buddha and Gandhi and goes to Pakistan for establishing peace despite threats to his life,” Sabnis had said, triggering protests from the BJP, which has threatened to stop him from taking the dais at the Marathi literary meet in Pimpri-Chinchwad from January 15. Sabnis has been appointed president of the meet.

Sabnis said he said nothing wrong and, therefore, there was no reason for him to apologise. “The Indian Constitution has given me freedom of speech and nobody has the right to take away that right from me. I will speak against what is wrong and speak in favour of what is right. I have Constitutional right for doing this,” he said.

Sabnis said the BJP was making an issue out of nothing. “They should carefully listen to my speech. I said what happened under Modi in Gujarat is not acceptable to me. That is shameful and shocking… But what is happening now under Modi as the Prime Minister is praiseworthy. He is making efforts for the development of the country and ensuring peace with our neighbours. This effort is laudable,” he said.

Criticising Sabnis, BJP MP Amar Sable said, “Sabnis has used highly derogatory language against the democratically elected Prime Minister of the nation… We will not allow Sabnis to step on the dais of the literary meet.

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