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We are not wavering: Thackeray

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

The Shiv Sena chief, Balasaheb Thackeray, addressing a press conference after releasing a music cassette in Mumbai on Thursday. — PTI

MUMBAI Jan. 2. The Shiv Sena leader, Bal Thackeray, today put himself and his party as the foremost advocate of Hindutva "not wavering according to the winds of the moment" like the BJP or the VHP.

Even the Gujarat victory, he said, was not because of "any Narendra Modi pattern or Gujarat pattern but because of Hindutva'' and nothing else. "What is this pattern they are talking of,'' he asked.

Being steadfast on Hindutva was the most important thing for the Sena and it was this element in the BJP ideology that brought the two parties together.

On the former Union Law Minister, Ram Jethmalani's willingness to defend one of the persons sentenced in the Parliament attack case, Mr. Thackeray said that Mr. Jethmalani was elected to the Rajya Sabha with the Sena's help.

If he wanted to defend the sentenced man, then "Mr. Jethmalani had better resign his seat in the Rajya Sabha first. I sent him there and the party has a view on this.'' Without the Sena's votes, Mr. Jethmalani would not have made it.

The BJP was an "entity that did not know which path to tread on.

It says one thing from one platform and yet another on Hindutva from a different one, Mr. Thackeray said commenting on the Prime Minister's musings from Goa.

PTI reports:

The Sena chief said there were ``limits of tolerance'' and wondered aloud whether one was expected to continue displaying tolerance even in the face of attack on temples.

He parried questions on not being invited for the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi's felicitation function in the city on January 12.

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