Picture : Twitter / ANI
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray launched a blistering attack on his former ally Bharatiya Janata Party, saying `Hindutva’ was facing threat from those who used it to get power and the hunger for power was like “drug addiction”.
In a no-holds-barred attack, Thackeray, who is also the Shiv Sena president, virtually sounded the bugle for the civic polls in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra early next year.
Hindutva faced threat not from outsiders but from “neo Hindus” and “those who climbed the ladder of power” using the ideology, he said, adding they will now “adopt the British policy of divide and rule”.
“The Shiv Sena needs to guard against such designs and work for the unity of Marathi people and Hindus,” he said, addressing the annual dussehra rally of the party at the Shanmukhanand Hall .
Maharashtra and the Sena were being targeted because his party broke off its ties with the BJP, he said.
Accusing the BJP of maligning Maharashtra, he said, “They call Mumbai police mafia, what will you call the UP police then?”
Is it(drugs seizure) only happening in Maharashtra? Drugs worth crores was seized from Mundra Port. While your agencies (NCB) recovering pinch of ganja,our police recovered drugs worth Rs 150 crs. You’re interested to catch celebrities& get pictures clicked said Uddhav
Referring to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s recent statement that ancestors of all Indians were same, Thackeray asked, “Did the ancestors of opposition parties and farmers come from a different planet? Struggle for power is not good. Addiction to power is like drug addiction.
“In drug addiction, you destroy yourself and your family. But hunger for power destroys families of others,” he said.
Notably, Thackeray, who heads the Shiv Sena, said its and RSS’s ideology was same, but paths were different.
The BJP was now targeting the Sena and accusing it of being corrupt after the two parties parted ways, he said.
“We were good when we followed you….Don’t use the ED (Enforcement Directorate). Attack from the front. Our government will complete two years next month despite several attempts to topple it. I dare you to topple it,” the chief minister said.
Sena workers and people of Maharashtra should emulate the example of Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal which stood up to the BJP, he added.
The BJP (its predecessors) made no contribution to the freedom struggle, Thackeray alleged.
“You have not understood Savarkar or Gandhi….When you have no contribution (to freedom struggle), what right you have to speak about Gandhi or Savarkar,” he asked.
Thackeray’s comments came days after Defense Minister Rajnath Singh claimed that Gandhi had advised Vinayak Damodar Savarkar to file mercy petition to the British when the future Hindutva ideologue was incarcerated
in Andaman’s Cellular Jail.
The Maharashtra chief minister also demanded an open debate on Centre-state relationship and federal structure as well as atrocities against women as the country celebrates 75 years of Independence.
“Centre’s interference in powers of states should be discussed,” he said.
“I am Hindutva proponent and I am not ashamed of it. But as chief minister I treat all equally. Our Hindutva teaches us equality,” he said.
