After he came in for severe flak from his party leadership for hailing Lord Ganesh, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA Waris Pathan on Tuesday apologised for his “Ganpati Bappa Morya” chant at a Ganesh Mandal event in his constituency during the weekend and said he would never utter such a praise on a Hindu God in future,
In a video message uploaded on his Twitter handle, Pathan said: “A few days ago I inadvertently uttered a chant (of Lord Ganesh). I bow before Allah and say that I made a mistake, God willing, I will not make such a mistake in future. After all I am also a human being. Every human being commits mistakes. I am admitting my mistake. I urge Allah to forgive me for my mistake. I urge everyone to pray for me”.
A controversy had broken out within the AIMIM after he chanted “Ganpati Bappa Morya” and prayed to the elephant-headed God to remove obstacles of all people, at an event organised on Sunday in his home constituency of Byaculla to celebrate Ganeshotsav, an act his party had not taken kindly to - So much so that his party leaders and workers seeing disrepute to his party through his chant hailing Lord Ganesh.
Meanwhile, the ruling Shiv Sena came to Phatan’s defence for his “Ganpati Bappa Morya” chant. “What wrong has Pathan done? Was it a crime on his part to chant Ganpati Bappa Morya? Why has he apologised for his chant hailing Lord Ganesh? Hindus go to Masjid. The Hindus even go to Ajmer. That being the case, should we draw any inference that those Hindus will switch to Muslim religion. I am surprised as to why Pathan chose to apologise. His apology was unwarranted,” Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said.
