UDDHAV: IT IS GADADHARI V/S GHANTADHARI

It was a Saturday of searing criticism from Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

- SANJAY JOG

 He tore into his party’s former ally the BJP, the RSS and his estranged cousin and MNS chief Raj Thackeray on a range of issues, including the politically hot subject of Hindutva, polarization and the killing of a Kashmiri pandit, the Centre’s attempt to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra, the burgeoning inflation and unemployment, the campaign to discredit Maharashtra by deploying Central probe agencies and the Centre giving the go-by to the principles of federalism.

At a massive rally, in the backdrop of the Azaan-Hanuman Chalisa controversy and the attacks by the BJP and MNS, Thackeray declared that Shiv Sena had not left Hindutva and from Maharashtra would be strongly foiled. Thackeray, without naming the BJP, claimed that the fake Hindutva party was misleading the nation. He warned that his party would fight against the BJP-led Central government’s attempt to destabilize the state by deploying Central probe agencies.

Thackeray said Shiv Sena had kicked out the ‘donkeys’ when it had broken its alliance with the BJP after the 2019 assembly election in the state. “Devendra Fadnavis said that we are gadha [donkey] dhari Hindus. But let me tell you, we kicked the donkeys out when we broke the alliance with you [BJP]. We wasted 25 years in alliance with the BJP,” he reiterated.

“Our Hindutva is ‘gadadhari (mace-carrying)’. Rahul Bhat was killed by terrorists at the tehsil office in J&K, now what will you [BJP] do? Will you read the Hanuman Chalisa there?” he asked.