It is a shame that we still have cities in India named after one of the most barbarous, brutal and cruel Mughal Ruler Aurangzeb. Aurangabad city in Maharashtra is named after Aurangzeb, the most despised character by Hindus, who crushed Hindus by imposing onerous jaziya, very steep commercial and agricultural taxes on Hindus.  His army captured many Hindu women and forced them into sex-slavery, he demolished many ancient Hindu temples, the most holiest of them being the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple at Mathura and the Kashi Jyotirlinga temple. Aurangzeb also brutally tortured and murdered Sikh Gurus Arjun Singh and Tegh Bahadur Singh as they refused to convert to Islam.

It was a solemn promise of Shiv Sena to rename Aurangabad to Shambaji Nagar since as far as thirty years ago Balasaheb Thackeray had declared that he would call Aurangabad as Shabhaji Nagar, Shambhaji was the valiant son of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj who was tortured to death in 1689 by Aurangzeb as he refused to convert to Islam. With an eye to gain Hindu votes in the forthcoming local body elections in Aurangabad after a series of misgovernance and non-seriousness over Hindu sadhus being brutally murdered in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena now proposed to change the name of Aurangabad to Shambhaji Nagar. Even though the move comes a little too late, it still is a welcome move as it is necessary to remove all glorifications of Islamic tyrants like Aurangzeb as Israel would never have a city or a street named after Adolf Hitler who committed the worst genocide of Jews second to only perhaps the jihadis from the time of Prophet Muhammad.

The Indian Nation Congress which  has morphed in to a Muslim League under Sonia Gandhi has strongly opposed the move of renaming Aurangabad to Shambajhi Nagar. The Maharashtra Congress President, Balasaheb Thorat warned Shiv Sena against its proposal to rename Aurangabad as it was not part of the common minimum program set by the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition formed by Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP. Samajwadi Party’s well-known controversial jihadi leader Abu Azmi also opposed the move to rename Aurangabad.

While there were huge protests in Aurangabad today by Marathas against the Congress for opposing the proposal to rename Aurangabad to the great Maratha warrior’s name. While BJP’s leader Ram Kadam said that the Shiv Sena and Congress just want to mislead the people of Maharashtra by indulging in faux fights to distract them from the strong criticism over lack of governance and lawlessness evidenced from the brazen murder of Hindu holy seers, complete whitewash of Sushant Singh Rajput’s unnatural death case and harassment of media over critical reports against the government of Maharashtra.

It is hoped that the Shiv Sena stands up against its anti-Hindu alliance partners like Congress and NCP and restores the pride of Maharashtra by renaming the city of Aurangabad to Shambhaji Nagar.    

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