A man in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar filed a complaint at the City Chowk police station against TV9 Marathi for allegedly addressing Islamist tyrant Aurangzeb as “Aurangya”. A popular Marathi YouTube channel ‘Analyser News’ has now started a movement to essentially mention the Islamic tyrant as ‘Aurangya’ and challenged the Islamists to file complaints if they want. Shrikant Umrikar of Analyser News released a video in this regard on 28th June 2023.
The complaint filed at City Chowk police station was regarding a TV9 news report on Prakash Ambedkar’s visit to Aurangzeb’s tomb in Khultabad. Notably, the complainant is a former ACP who retired in 2016. Calling it a “cognizable offence”, Riyazuddin Ghiyasuddin Deshmukh said that the alleged insult to Aurangzeb hurt his religious sentiments.
In a video titled ‘Yes, we will call him Aurangya only, file the cases, we won’t be afraid’, Shrikant Umrikar challenged ex-ACP Riyazuddin Ghiyasuddin Deshmukh and anyone who bears a mindset like him. Shrikant Umrikar said, “Yes, we will call him Aurangya only. Whosoever wants to file cases against me or Analyser News is free to do so. Ex-ACP Riyazuddin Ghiyasuddin Deshmukh has filed a complaint against TV9 Marathi in a police station in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar saying that the news channel has hurt his religious sentiments by addressing Aurangazeb as Aurangya. The channel had used this word while reporting Prakash Ambedkar’s visit to Aurangzeb’s tomb on June 17.”
Shrikant Umrikar also shared an image from the OpIndia report about this matter and underlined how Riyazuddin Ghiyasuddin Deshmukh turned from a clean-shaved duty-bound cop to a maulana-look-alike within a few years after his retirement and said that his complaint is a deliberate attempt to unnecessarily glorify a villain as a hero towing him on religious lines.
Shrikant Umrikar said, “This is not the first time that someone has addressed Aurangzeb as Aurangya. Marathi seer and poet Samarth Ramdas was the first Marathi person to call him Aurangya. He wrote “बुडाला औरंग्या पापी” in his poetry “आनंदवनभुवनी” in the 17th century.”
It is notable that Samarth Ramdas wrote this 59-verse poetry to express his happiness as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj established a Hindu Swarajya by getting himself coronated by Hindu rituals on 6th June 1674. The said reference is from the 33rd verse of the poetry.
Umrikar said, “In chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, we will call him Aurangya only. This is because that sinner is buried under the soil here. We can never forgive him for the cruel murder of our king Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. Whosoever wants to preach whatever secular liberal philosophy to the people, is free to preach to people other than us. We are not ready to listen to it at all. We will not only call him Aurangya but also abuse him even worse if someone is going to file cases against us for this. I – deliberately wearing this saffron colour shirt – challenge you and the people who think like you that if you will file cases for calling him Aurangya, then we all will come together and launch a movement to call him Aurangya again and again. File cases against whatever number of people you can.”
He added, “Let me make it clear that this all is against Islam in the first place. If nobody except Allah deserves worship as per Islam, even Prophet is just a messenger and not a deity, he too cannot be worshipped; then how come mentioning Aurangzeb as Aurangya hurts the religious sentiments?”
He further said, “Aurangzeb was just another man who died like everyone has to die one day. He was a sinner and cruel person. The history written by the court historians of this evil sinner Aurangya is full of references and numbers about the temples he destroyed, the people he converted and the women he and his forces looted and raped. They tell this all with pride. Committing some crime with a criminal mindset or perverted tendency is a different thing. Cases are lodged against the people who commit such crimes. But if someone commits some heinous crime just because his religion orders him to do so, then it becomes totally different case.”
Shrikant Umrikar further said, “I don’t think his religious feelings are really hurt. He is doing this deliberately. I am not doing this video just for our channel or supporting some other channel. I am doing this because this is a deliberate attack on the faith of people who believe in Sanatan Dharma. People like Mohan Bhagwat and other RSS officials have always taken a generous stand and said that the DNA of people living in this country is the same. Be it Hindus or Muslims, we are one entity. Sanatanis have at times shown generosity of even recognising Muslims as another caste or sect of Hinduism because most of the Muslims in India are originally Sanatanis who got converted at some point of time in history. The way they worship dargahs, Mazars, makbaras, etc. is all anti-Islamic. It is not at all acceptable in Puritan Sunni Islam which believes in a formless and shapeless deity and denies worshipping any symbols whatsoever.”
Shrikant Umrikar clarified how Islamists prefer Sharia in civil matters like marriage, divorce, inheritance, etc. and opt Indian Penal Code in criminal cases. He also mentioned that no Muslim denies taking an interest in any FDs or other financial schemes citing Islamic rules regarding the same. He underlined how Islamists demand hijab for Muslim women and girls but when it comes to men, they comfortably forget that Islam specifies dress code for men with equal emphasis. “These are their double standards. This is how they are changing their stance according to their convenience. These intellectual corrupts oppose CAA, NRC, etc.”, he said.
Reiterating the movement undertaken, he said, “To condemn this in as harsh words as one can, we all should run a movement ‘Yes We will call him Aurangya only’. We are starting this movement and we are taking the whole responsibility of that. If a case is registered against me or Analyser News for addressing Aurangzeb as Aurangya, we will not seek any bail. Lock us in jail for any duration you can. But, yes, we will call him Aurangya. We will even abuse him more in a worse language. We cannot use that language on video, but we will use it in offline talks for sure.”
Analyser News is a Marathi YouTube Channel run by sushil Kulkarni and Shrikant Umrikar. While a complaint was filed against a Marathi news channel TV9 Marathi, no other Marathi news channel or newspaper or media house took any stand against it. Nobody cried that press freedom is endangered. Analyser News took this selective silence head-on and launched a campaign to address Aurangzeb as Aurangya every single time.
An engineer by education, Shrikant Umrikar is a well-known publisher in Marathi and has raised his voice on many civil, cultural, and civilisational issues from time to time. He also heads the activities of Devgiri Sangeet Pratishthan and Marathawada Prachin Waastu Samvardhan Samiti.
Sushil Kulkarni became a more known face in Marathi journalism when he fearlessly criticised the corrupt Maha Vikas Aghadi government in a series of videos on this channel. Sushil Kulkarni’s family was attacked by the MVA goons for this. Devendra Fadnavis who was the leader of the opposition during the MVA regime had mentioned the attacks on the voices against the government. He mentioned how the father of a young journalist Sushil Kulkarni who runs a youtube channel called Analyser News was attacked by goons because Sushil Kulkarni had criticized the MVA government in his videos.
