Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday called up Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray after the Sena leaders accompanied West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a delegation to Rashtrapati Bhavan protesting against the government’s demonetisation move.
The NDA government has been embarrassed by the Shiv Sena’s move, and several scathing editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamna on the government’s move to demonetise currency of denominations Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000.
“The call was also to express condolences on the death anniversary of Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray, which falls on Thursday. But Rajnathji also tried to mollify Uddhavji on the differences between the two parties, and the need to provide a united face,” said a senior source in the Home Ministry. The Home Minister shared the steps taken by the government to ease the cash crunch.
After the call, Mr Thackeray said that his party “was with the government in its war against black money, but those holding it must be targeted, not the common man.”
In fact, Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu had also taken aside the two parliamentary floor leaders of the party, Anand Rao Adsul and Sanjay Raut and spoken to them about this embarrassing difference between the two allies. Informed sources said that Mr. Thackeray was said to be upset with Prime Minister Narendra Modi terming Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar as his “guru.”
Four Shiv Sena Ministers, in fact, are part of the six- member inter-ministerial monitoring team set up by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on the issue of demonetisation.
