Following the tumultuous past few months after the Maharashtra Assembly Elections, which resulted in Shiv Sena severing its longstanding alliance with BJP, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray has offered a rebuttal to the former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP who claimed that Sena had turned its back on its own ideology.
Speaking at the Maharashtra Assembly last week, Thackeray mentioned that the BJP was no different and cited its coalitions with Mamata Banerjee, Ram Vilas Paswan in the past and more recently the PDP in J&K.
“You (Devendra Fadnavis) talked about the people's mandate. But this is politics. We were probably making a mistake that we were mixing politics and religion. But at that time we forgot that even the followers of 'dharma' lost in gambling (a reference to Mahabharata). Politics is a gamble. You should keep it in its rightful place,” Thackeray said.
“We had forgotten this. We started mixing religion and politics and we took a hit for that. We stayed together for 25 years and we stayed because of Hindutva. We haven't changed religion. We were Hindus yesterday, today and tomorrow. But what about you? You allied with everyone from opposite ideologies like Mamata (Mamata Banerjee) Ramvilas Paswan and even the PDP,” he added.
“Our government is for those who travel in rickshaws. Not for those who travel in bullet trains,” Thackeray quipped, taking a jibe at the central government.
While the Sena supported the centre’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act at the Lok Sabha, it succumbed to pressure from its allies and opposed the bill in the Rajya Sabha. Thackeray said “Bring back Hindus from other countries but where will you rehabilitate them? Let the court decide.”
Responding to the BJP's accusation that Sena’s Subhash Desai who held the industries portfolio was equally responsible for the economic situation of the state, Thackeray responded by saying “You kept saying we had the industries portfolios. Yes that portfolio was with Desai (Subhash Desai). But what about the Kasai (butcher) on the other side? Demonetisation and flawed GST butchered the economy. I am using the term butcher in that context.”
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