India, April 24 -- Buldhana's Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Gaikwad is once again in the midst of a controversy for threatening to physically attack Kolhapur-based publisher Prashant Ambi for publishing a book on Hindu king Chhatrapati Shivaji without honorifics in the title. The audio clip of this has gone viral, with Gaikwad heard threatening to barge into Ambi's house, thrash him and pull out his tongue. He is also heard asking Ambi if he is a Brahmin.

The insistence on both honorifics, the prefix Chhatrapati and suffix Maharaj, is a political imposition by Hindutva parties in the last few years. Ambi, who is the publisher of the Marathi book Shivaji Kon Hota? (Who Was Shivaji?) written by CPI leader Govind Pansare, pointed out to Gaikwad that...