MUMBAI: CM Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday warned the BJP-led Centre if they didn’t stop “misuse” of Central agencies like CBI and ED and lodging “bogus cases” against MVA leaders, his government would retaliate “mercilessly” in the same manner against BJP and “they would not have any place to flee.” At a Sena rally in BKC, he also slammed the Centre for failing to provide security to Kashmiri Pandits and instead providing security to “small-time BJP leaders in Maharashtra.”
Without naming Raj Thackeray, Uddhav, referring to the Sanjay Dutt-starrer ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’, said “some people have started wearing saffron shawls and thinking they are Balasaheb Thackeray. But they are suffering from a ‘chemical locha’ in their head, like Munnabhai.”
Speaking at Sena’s first big rally since the 2019 assembly polls, he reiterated that the Marathi-speaking people atop Babri Masjid were Shiv Sainiks and hit out at BJP’s Fadnavis for claiming he was present at the site.
If Dawood joins BJP, he too will be made minister: CM
Targeting the BJP-led Centre, CM Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said when it realized the MVA government wasn’t falling, “they sent the ED, CBI after us, but still nothing is happening. But if you come after us, we will also not show any mercy or pity. Just like we are not misusing the law, you must not misuse it. If you want to fight, put up a straight fight and let the people decide. Stop this dirty politics.”
Uddhav said that if gangster Dawood Ibrahim joined BJP, he too could be seen as a minister in their government. Uddhav said with all the Central agencies’ action against Dawood, he may end up in the BJP. He ridiculed Fadnavis, saying had he been at the site of the Babri at the time of its demolition, the mosque “would have fallen by his sheer weight.” “Fadnavis says there were no Shiv Sainiks during Babri’s demolition but he was there. What was your age? Did you go on a school trip then?” he asked.
Referring to Fadnavis’s comment that Sena’s Hindutva was now “gadha dhari (riding a donkey),” Uddhav said the Sena “had left the donkeys who were with us in the guise of horses 2.5 years ago.”
Uddhav recalled Sena founder late Bal Thackeray’s conversation with him soon after the Babri’s demolition, where he had said he was proud of Sainiks who had demolished the Babri. He added, “Who are you (BJP) to decide whether our Hindutva is true or false? What is Hindutva? Is Hindutva a thing to be left? Even if we go with Congress, we have not given up Hindutva. We openly went with NCP and Congress and did not conduct a swearing-in early in the morning. You pushed us into going with the Congress.”
Thackeray said Fadnavis had said they would make Mumbai independent. He said Sena would not allow anyone to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra. Fadnavis had at his rally said BJP would give Mumbai “independence from corruption.”
Uddhav asked why the Centre had failed to provide security to Kashmiri Pandits. “Small-time BJP leaders get Y-category security and put tomato sauce later and take press conferences. BJP has the A, B, C and D teams who play the role of loudspeakers and recite Hanuman Chalisa,” he alleged. He also criticized the Centre over inflation and rising cost of essentials.
On Raj, he said, “We have a case like that of Munnabhai. Here someone thinks he sees Balasaheb and thinks Balasaheb is in him. He wears saffron shawls nowadays. Sometimes they take up the issue of Marathi, sometimes Hindutva…Let Munnabhai walk around like this. If anyone wants to go to Ayodhya, let him go.”
Sena MP Sanjay Raut announced Aaditya Thackeray’s Ayodhya trip had been rescheduled from June 10 to June 14 due to the Rajya Sabha elections due on June 10.
