Challenges the BJP to protect Kashmiri Pandits; says the Sena doesn’t hate Islam
Uddhav Thackeray said BJP leaders’ statements could not be held as representative of the whole of India. File pic
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took the Shiv Sena’s fierce Hindutva debate with the Bharatiya Janata Party northwards, asking the frenemy to show guts to protect Kashmiri Pandits from terrorist attacks. Defining the Sena’s Hindutva, he said unlike the BJP, his party did not hate other religions, abuse their Gods or prophets, and put the entire country to shame.
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Thackeray was speaking at a rally in Aurangabad, which is treated as Central Maharashtra’s Hindutva heartland by both the Sena and BJP. Considering the civic polls, the CM talked about local issues and also hit out at the BJP over various other issues, including Hindutva. He challenged the BJP to an open debate over the raging saffron agenda.
“Yours is hollow Hindutva. In Kashmir, the Hindu people, the Kashmiri Pandits are leaving their homes in fear. But you don’t care about it. Go there and read Hanuman Chalisa. Go there if you are so brave. Protest the Kashmiri Pandits. Use the ED in Kashmir,” he said while promising the Kashmir Pandits all assistance in case they want to move to Maharashtra.
Thackeray’s thickly crowded rally was held at the venue where his father the late Balasaheb Thackeray had delivered his many speeches. The occasion also marked the 37th anniversary of the party’s first shakha in the city where it has ruled for many years, post the Hindutva wave. A month ago, Thackeray’s estranged cousin Raj had challenged the Sena from the same ground. The CM took a dig at Raj over his Hanuman Chalisa against loudspeakers on masjid protest. He said the BJP had contracted many (like Raj and AIMIM) to push its divisive agenda.
“My father never asked sainiks to hate Islam. He would say the country was our religion. He asked us to confine our religious matters to the four walls. But we are people who don’t hesitate from giving in the same vein when someone who is blinded by religion attacks us,” he said.
Referring to the incident in which some BJP spokesperson have been accused of abusing Prophet Muhammad, he said that the BJP leaders’ statements could not be held as representative of the whole of India. “The Gulf countries have made us kneel before them. The PM’s (Narendra Modi) photo was stuck on the waste bin. It has happened because of ‘tin pot’ spokespersons of the BJP, not because of the entire country.”
Reiterating that a Sena-BJP realignment was impossible in future, he asked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to rein in its abusive children. “They said I criticised the RSS in my last speech in Mumbai, but I did not. I still want the parent organisation to assess the behaviour of the BJP which has been using foul language against the opposition, their families,” he said, praising the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for speaking against the new trend of finding Shivlingam in every masjid.
Thackeray said the Sena treated a Kashmiri soldier named Aurangzeb who was killed for taking out many terrorists, as its own. “One who fights for the country irrespective of his religious affiliation is the Sena’s person,” he said. The statement was important in view of the questioning of the Sena’s ‘secular Hindutva’ which the party has been professing after it started leading the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Aurangabad has a large number of Muslims. The AIMIM beat the Sena in 2019 to represent the city in Lok Sabha. Over the years, the BJP has also increased its foothold in the city.
Thackeray said whenever the elections approached, the BJP diverted attention from the real issues by raking up mandir-masjid issues. He appealed to the people to ask the BJP about the promise of achche din. Reacting to the CM’s speech, the opposition leader Devendra Fadanavis said it was a case of selective memory loss. “Those who do nothing to reduce fuel rates are now talking about achche din. They don’t do what they preach. A lot was expected for the local people, but what they heard was barbs, only barbs,” he said.
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