NEW DELHI – A court has granted bail to an Indian federal minister, Narayan Rane, who was arrested over his remark about slapping Maharashtra state’s chief minister.
Rane reportedly said that Uddhav Thackeray forgot the year of India’s independence and had to ask an aide during his speech on Aug. 15.
“Had I been there, I would have given him a slap,” he told a rally on Monday.
His comments sparked protests in Maharashtra, led by Thackeray’s Shiv Sena party.
Rane and other members from the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the cases against him were borne out of political malice.
His arrest follows clashes between the members of BJP and the Shiv Sena party.
The BJP and the Sena have been at loggerheads since their decades-old political alliance came to a bitter end in 2019.(BBC)
