'Comparing Mumbai to PoK is Blasphemy,' Says All India Congress Committee Secretary Ashish Dua

Mumbai is “pride” of Maharashtra and India and to demean the city by likening it to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) is “blasphemy”, All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Ashish Dua said on Monday without naming actress Kangana Ranaut.

Taking to Twitter a day after Ranaut met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai over the partial razing of her office by the Mumbai civic body, Dua also said the governor’s office is “not for politics”.

“#Mumbai is pride of #Maharashtra & entire India. This is a city which has realised dreams of millions without prejudice or discrimination. To demean it by comparing with PoK is blasphemy. Guv office is not for politics,” Dua tweeted. He said the BJP should refrain from “dividing citizenson the basis of region”.

Ranaut had said that she met Koshyari to apprise himabout “injustice” done to her. The Congress is one of the ruling constituents of the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghahdi (MVA) dispensation; the otherbeing the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Earlier in the day, the actress, who left Mumbai for her native Himachal Pradesh, reiterated her PoK barb, which had riled the Sena and other members of the MVA. Ranaut has tweeted that she has been terrorised with”constant attacks and abuses” and that her analogy comparingthe Maharashtra capital with PoK was “bang on.”

The Sena and Ranaut have been at loggerheads eversince the actress compared Mumbai to PoK after Sena MP Sanjay Raut asked her not to return to Mumbai. Raut had targeted Ranaut after the latter expressedher distrust in the Mumbai Police in view of actor SushantSingh Rajput’s death.