Attempting to project a united front under former Maharashtra CM and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), in its joint rally in Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) on Sunday launched a broadside against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Eknath Shinde government in the State.
While gingerly skirting over thorny alliance issues like Mr. Thackeray’s recent criticism of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over the latter’s remarks against Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar and the renaming of Sambhajinagar to Aurangabad, Mr. Thackeray and the MVA leadership including Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)’s Ajit Pawar and Congressman Ashok Chavan instead attacked the BJP and PM Modi for their ‘double standards’ and targeting of Opposition leaders throughout the country.
This was the first in a projected series of joint MVA rallies to take place in the State with an eye on the civic and general and Assembly elections.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Nana Patole was absent from the rally, with sources saying he was reportedly unwell.
Mr. Thackeray, who led the MVA charge, attacked the BJP and Shinde faction over the meaning of ‘Hindutva’, the Savarkar issue and the BJP’s discrimination against the Muslim community.
“For 25 years, we were under an illusion during our alliance with the BJP. Twice our coalition government [Sena-BJP] had come to power, but Aurangabad could not be renamed as Sambhajinagar. What BJP could not do, our MVA had done it,” said Mr. Thackeray, alluding to one of his last cabinet decisions when the MVA had passed the decision to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad (to Dharashiv).
There had been frictions between Mr. Thackeray and his Congress allies over the renaming issue when he was CM. However, all MVA leaders were careful in Sunday’s rally to refer to erstwhile ‘Aurangabad’ as ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’ (after the Maratha king who was murdered by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb).
“Veer Savarkar did not suffer 14 years in the Andamans for Modi to come to power... We [MVA] are determined to preserve the Constitution. The BJP merely want to divert attention from real issues and hence are persecuting Rahul Gandhi,” Mr. Thackeray said.
Mr. Thackeray further alleged that the BJP did not want to do anything, but merely stoke communal tensions ahead of elections.
Criticising the slew of ‘Jan Aakrosh’ yatras led by Hindu outfits across the State, he said: “What is the use of Modi’s vaunted strength if such demonstrations are being carried out to express anger of Hindus. When the MVA was in power, neither Hindu nor Muslim needed to vent their ire.”
Stating that “countless” friends from the Muslim community had attended his recent rally in Malegaon (Nashik), Mr. Thackeray challenged his detractors to prove how he had discarded Hindutva.
“If you claim that I have left ‘Hindutva’ by going along with the Congress, then what about you [the BJP] who formed a government with PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti in Kashmir in the past. The BJP does not have the right to decide who is a true ‘Hindu’ or who is a ‘traitor’ as per their convenience,” he said.
Remarking that his (Sena [UBT]’s) notion of ‘Hindutva’ was patriotic, Mr. Thackeray ticked off the BJP’s claims of a ‘purer’ Hindutva, remarking that the BJP’s ideal meant ruthlessly unleashing central agencies to harass opposition leaders from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
“Opposition leaders from Kashmir to Kanyakumari are being harassed, put in jail. PM Modi claims Opposition is trying to defame him, then what about us? If we even make the slightest protest, then Central agencies are let loose upon us,” he said.
He dubbed the present BJP as a “party of corrupt people which poaches corrupt leaders from other parties.”
Stating that his former political adversaries, the Congress and the NCP, had stood by him in his hour of crisis, Mr. Thackeray said that the BJP only believed in the ‘use and throw’ principle while daring them to contest future elections under Mr. Shinde’s leadership in Maharashtra.
“Who is with the BJP today? You [BJP] have broken all regional parties who used to be your allies…today, you have split the Sena, taken away the party name and symbol and are even trying to steal my father’s [Bal Thackeray’s] name…But I’m not going to leave my father’s name. If you people [BJP-Shinde Sena] have the guts, then try and contest elections on PM Modi name. I will take my father’s name and fight you,” he said.
Both Mr. Thackeray and NCP leader Ajit Pawar said that while the BJP could take out a ‘Savarkar Gaurav Yatra’ to celebrate the Hindutva ideologue, they questioned the BJP’s ‘double standards’ in failing to condemn ex-Maharashtra Governor B.S. Koshyari for allegedly ‘insulting’ Chhatrapati Shivaji, Jyotirao Phule and other great personages of Maharashtra.
“We have respect for all great men including Savarkar. We have no opposition to you taking out Savarkar Gaurav Yatra…but how is it you’ll failed to criticize the former Governor for insulting Chhatrapati Shivaji,” said Mr. Pawar.
Mr. Pawar further said that if the BJP indeed respected Savarkar as it claimed, then why had it not yet announced the Bharat Ratna for him.
Lauding Mr. Thackeray’s “magnanimity” when he was CM of the MVA government, ex-CM and Congress leader Chavan urged the audience not to forgive those [Shinde-BJP] who toppled Mr. Thackeray and were now “persecuting” Mr. Gandhi by disqualifying him from Parliament.
