Mumbai: Launching a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena (UBT) President and former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that the time has come to check the ruling party’s brand of ‘Hindutva’, here on Thursday.
Turning 63 on Thursday, Thackeray’s comments came in the second part of his birthday interviews to the Saamana Group, with a volley of questions fired by the Executive Editor and MP Sanjay Raut.
Thackeray said that his father and the Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray’s ‘Hindutva’ was not of fanatic variety, it was a dream, he had openly supported the Uniform Civil Code and the abrogation of Article 370.
However, the present form of Hindutva, in which you do whatever you want in the name of Hinduism, will never be accepted by the Hindus anywhere.
“They call others corrupt, humiliate them, ruin their lives and then force them to sit beside them… This is not Hindutva,” declared Thackeray.
He added that Hindutva does not mean just a ‘dhoti’, wear it as per convenience and take it off, and such ‘showy’ Hindutva is not our or acceptable.
“Earlier, during the Congress era, processions were taken out and slogans raised saying Islam is in danger… Now, Hindu Janakrosh marches are being taken out… So what did you do for nine years? Even today, Hindus are insecure in Kashmir, what’s being done for them?” Thackeray demanded.
Turning to the Manipur situation, the ex-CM asked whether those being killed there are not citizens of this country and what is being done for them, and is this the (BJP’s) Hindutva.
On the contrary, the BJP accuses the Opposition parties of being “families coming together to save themselves”.
Thackeray said that whenever patriotic parties come together to save the ‘family’, the BJP feels they are targeting their chair, and pointedly asked: ‘what has the BJP achieved in the past nine years, especially for Hindutva’.
“Yes, families have joined together to save the country, democracy… I had implemented the concept of ‘My Family, My Responsibility’ during the Covid-19 pandemic period. Today it needs to be executed all over the country as ‘My Country, My Responsibility’,” said Thackeray, justifying his stance in Bengaluru recently during the national opposition parties’ conclave.
To a query on the issue of Ram Temple and whether it was resolved, Thackeray countered, “who solved it”?
“At the time of the Babri Masjid incident, you were not ready to even take responsibility… you did not take the decision of Ram Temple, then how can you take credit for it. What did you do for Hindutva and where is it now?” Thackeray asked sharply.
Referring to the flock of people from other political parties joining the BJP, Thackeray said that Ram has gone away long back and the party is now just full of ‘aaya-rams’.
“This entire party is of ‘aaya-rams’… What about the people originally with your party… will they be deployed only for party work or will they be given tickets in parliament and assembly elections… I just read that Maharashtra is lagging in exports, but someone commented it is leading in import of MLAs…,” said Thackeray in a swipe at the ruling alliance in the state.
Meanwhile, the ruling BJP leaders like Narayan Rane, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Ashish Shelar, Prasad Lad, Keshav Upadhye and others have ridiculed and slammed Thackeray’s two-part marathon birthday-interview and his comments.
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