Shiv Sena slams Sanjay Raut for seeking June 20 as ‘World Traitors Day’

Mumbai: The ruling ally Shiv Sena hit back at the rival Shiv Sena (UBT) for seeking to declare June 20 — when the two factions came into being in 2022 — as ‘World Traitors Day’, here on Monday.

Stung by the idea, irate Shiv Sena leaders like Uday Samant, Sanjay Shirsat and Ramdas Kadam pounced on Raut and Sena (UBT), calling them as the real ‘gaddars’ or traitors to the cause of Hindutva and the ideals of the late Balasaheb Thackeray.”

On Sunday Sena (UBT) President and former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, his son Aditya Thackeray had mentioned this in their speeches, and elaborated by party MP and Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut today.

Dismissing the proposal, Shirsat said that his party would celebrate June 20 as a ‘day of Pride and Self-respect’ and flayed Raut for labelling the breakaway faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as ‘gaddars’.

Samant said that the party would soon expose “who is the real ‘gaddar’ in the state” and who had dumped all ideals in their sheer hunger for power, and how the people of the state were stabbed in the back.

Kadam said Thackeray had broken off from the BJP solely to become the CM and he had committed ‘gaddari’ (treason) with the masses, and had betrayed the Hindutva plus the teachings propounded by the late Balasaheb Thackeray.

Even CM Shinde took a cocky potshot saying, “I heard they (Thackerays) are going to make a demand for some such day…” as his supporters guffawed.

The trio also proposed their own versions of June 20 – like ‘pride day’, ‘self-respect day’, etc., – to counter the Sena (UBT)’s plans to petition the United Nations (UN) for declaring the day (June 20) as ‘World Traitors Day’.

It maybe recalled that after a group of 40 Sena MLAs in June 2022 walked out, the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi government headed by former CM Uddhav Thackeray was toppled and Eknath Shinde supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party became the new CM on June 30 last year.

Since that political earthquake, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena has been publicly hounded, haunted and humiliated by the Opposition’s screams of ‘gaddars’, ’50 Khokhas’ (slang for Rs 50 crore) and other such political slogans.