MUMBAI: Taking a swipe at

, chief minister

said on Saturday that ‘

’ and ‘

’ were different. “There is a difference between ‘Mann Ki Baat’ and ‘Dil Ki Baat’. I just said it without any other intention What is ‘Dil Ki Baat’ is evident from this book. If

wrote a letter every day, Nargis also kept them safe all these years,” he said at the naming ceremony of Anjuman-I-Islam’s Barrister A R Antulay College of Law at the Anjuman campus near CSMT.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar also attended the event, which saw the release of a book of Antulay’s letters to his fiancée-wife Nargis, brought out by Antulays’ daughter, Neelam Mushtaque Antulay.

Speaking mostly in Marathi, though he called Urdu “a sweet language”, Thackeray said some people must be wondering what is the son of Shiv Sena chief doing at Anjuman-I-Islam amid so many Urdu speakers? “Many must have wondered if I have changed my religion now that we have an alliance with Congress. But I have come here for two reasons: One is Antulay. Had he been alive today, he would have been very proud that Balasaheb’s son is the chief minister today. We all know about Antulay, but today the book has brought in front of us a different facet of his character,” he said. Thackeray lauded the fact that it was Antulay’s devotion to Shivaji that he renamed Colaba district as Raigad. “Someone said that Antulay renamed Colaba to Raigad. When he was such a follower of Shivaji, there must be no doubt in anyone’s mind why the Shiv Sena chief”s son is at Anjuman-I-Islam. Antulay renamed Colaba, and today I am naming a college in his honour. It is a moment of pride for the institution as well,” he said.

After Anjuman’s president Dr Zahir Kazi gave a detailed introduction of Anjuman (founded on February 22, 1874) and Antulay’s association with it, Pawar recalled his friendship with the former chief minister. “Barrister (Antulay) sahib was a strong administrator. This I saw as a cabinet colleague in the state assembly and as an Opposition leader,” said Pawar, who regaled the audience with comments on Antulay’s hitherto little-known softer side. “I know people who have written letters to their children — he mentioned Jawaharlal Nehru’s letters to his daughter Indira — and their wife. But by reading this book, I now know there was someone like A R Antualy who wrote letters to his wife practically every day,” he said. Azad said institutions like Anjuman deserved praise.

With inputs from Vinamrata Borwankar