For the first time since its inception, the Shiv Sena’s foundation day was celebrated in two rival events in the same city, on the same day – Mumbai, June 19. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, whose rebellion split the outfit into two, marked the day in the western suburbs of the city, while former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, who leads the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) faction, celebrated the day in central Mumbai.
In his speech on the Shiv Sena’s 57th foundation day, Uddhav Thackeray targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over the violence in Manipur.
“Manipur is burning but Modi is going to America,” Thackeray said ahead of the PM’s visit to the US from June 21-24. “When I asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not visiting the burning Manipur, but is keen on going to the US, I was countered with arguments like ‘one should spit at the sun’. If your ‘guru’ is like the sun, then why he is not shining over Manipur?” he asked.
“When there is violence in one of the states, houses of common people are getting burnt, how can our PM go to some other country”? he further asked.
Reading out a tweet in which an Army veteran compared the Manipur situation to the unrest in Libya and Syria, Thackeray said: “Today, when houses of BJP workers have been burnt, we don’t feel happy because that is our Hindutva… BJP has been in power for 10 years now. So why are Hindus saying they are in danger? Why are Hindus taking out rallies? Why are Hindus from Kashmir to Kanyakumari getting killed? This shows that the BJP government has failed.”
“The Union government does nothing against the true enemies like China but uses its (agencies like) CBI and ED against the BJP’s opponents in the country,” Thackeray further alleged in his speech in a soft launch of his campaign for Lok Sabha elections next year.
Thackeray also took a dig at the Eknath Shinde government which completes one year at the end of this month. “Tomorrow (June 20 when Shinde’s rebellion started is traitor day. They (Shinde faction) stole our name, symbol and even my father’s goodwill. Despite so much efforts, Union home minister Amit Shah had to come to Maharashtra and criticise me,” Thackeray said.
Shinde, meanwhile, retorted that Uddhav Thackeray has “nothing new” to say to his party workers and directed his workers to give a befitting reply to his allegations by working for the people. “They are trying to gain sympathy by targeting us, but the people of Maharashtra know who has betrayed them. He was just holding the post of the CM, but someone else was running the show.”
“You discarded the principles of Balasaheb for power, for the sake of chair. Balasaheb once said he would not allow the Shiv Sena to become like the Congress and if that happens, he will shut his shop. But today, you (Uddhav) went with the NCP and the Congress,” he said.
“In your speech, you asked the party workers to celebrate June 20 as the ‘gaddar divas’ (traitors’ day). You fumbled when you said ‘our’ betrayal is completing one year. But you immediately corrected yourself and blamed those leaders who left the party last year. It is you who is a traitor but you forgot the date,” the CM added.
In his speech, Shinde also shared a personal anecdote and claimed he took loans to contest elections. He said that was the reason he couldn’t fulfil his son’s dream to build a hospital. “When I was campaigning, I received a call from the doctor that my mother had passed away. But I completed the election campaign for the day and only then did I go back home to perform the last rites,” he said.
The Bal Thackeray-founded Shiv Sena, which came into existence on June 19, 1966, made the pride of ‘Marathi manoos‘ the core plank of its politics and later added Hindutva to its ideology to expand support base.
The Shiv Sena split in June last year after Shinde and 39 other MLAs of the party rebelled against then-chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and toppled the MVA coalition government of the Sena, the NCP and the Congress.
Both the factions have now been trying to claim the mantle of the ‘true inheritor’ of Bal Thackeray’s legacy ahead of the next year’s Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections as well as the long-due civic polls in Mumbai.