While Shiv Sena leaders sought to put Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan on the defensive by "returning" their security escorts, efforts to reach a compromise over the release of Shahrukh Khan starrer `My Name Is Khan' in Mumbai were yet to bear fruit with the actor refusing to bow.
The confrontation between SRK, the film's producer-director Karan Johar and Sena chief Bal Thackeray persisted with the actor ruling out an apology for his remarks that he would have liked Pakistani players to have been part of IPL-3. "I have said nothing wrong," the actor is understood to have told associates.
Khan, who left for Dubai and has plans to travel on to Berlin, is reportedly ready to meet Thackeray after the film's release. "SRK feels that the film should be released and he would have no problems meeting Balasaheb to thank the leader. But he does not see why he should first apologise," said sources close to the developments.
Opinion is divided over whether Chavan offered the Sena an opening by threatening to withdraw security of its executive president Uddhav Thackeray if opposition to the film was not withdrawn. There is a view that this has made the debate more personalised and the CM should have focused on the main issue -- that of Sena wanting to "punish" SRK for offering what was only a point of view.
Sena MPs in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha wrote to the presiding officers claiming that they have given up their security details. Congress sources maintained that this was largely a show put up for public consumption as the security cover had not been altered for MPs who were on the protected list. But there was some speculation due to reports that three local Sena leaders who had criticised Rahul Gandhi's Mumbai visit had been stripped of police escort.
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