Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray came heavily on his cousin Uddhav Thackeray. In a recent interview to a private news channel, Raj called the former chief minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray a person on whom one cannot place his trust.
Around a month ago, Maharashtra saw a major political crisis, with around 40 of the 55 MLAs from the Shiv Sena deciding to put their faith in Eknath Shinde, instead of Uddhav Thackeray.
Raj spoke extensively on various subjects, including Hindutva, the Shiv Sena and his cousin. On Hindutva and Shiv Sena, Raj said, “Post the demise of Balasaheb Thackeray, even Hindutva as an ideology died in the Shiv Sena, everything is now for power and money that is valued in the party, thus losing to the core ideology.”
Raj Thackeray runs a political party which has its base in the Marathi Asmita, hence his stand on Hindutva is that if the need is for Hinduism, he will stand as a Hindu, but when the topic is about the regional aspect of Maharashtra and Marathi, he will be standing as a Marathi. Raj pointed out that it was his party that fought for the Marathi name boards on shops, got 1000 of locals jobs in the railways, and even the Marathi language is being used in mobile phone operations because of his party. He even spoke about azaan on the loudspeaker and the decibels coming down because of his party’s agitation.
Raj didn’t even spare Sanjay Raut, the Man Friday of Uddhav Thackeray. During the interview, Raj spoke about an instance when deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had visited him, “I told him not to take credit for the split in the Shiv Sena, it told him neither he nor Amit Shah is responsible for the split. Give credit to Uddhav Thackeray, look at the allegations and accusations made and the role played by Sanjay Raut. Look how he was on television every day and what he said surely irritated people, but MLAs don’t leave because of a man speaking on television, there was a reason why I left, and many others left, including the MLAs who left now, for all leaving the party there’s only one reason.”
Raj Thackeray claimed that the Shiv Sena abandoned Hindutva. “They came in power with the Congress and NCP and thus the first casualty was the Hinduhriday samrat being removed from the name of Balasaheb in posters and in one poster the Hinduhriday samrat was replaced by the word Janab.”
Raj pointed out that when in power, the Shiv Sena didn’t remember Balasaheb but once out of power now, every day, they keep talking about Balasaheb and Hindutva. He also pointed out that, Uddhav, who was earlier unwell most of the time has now started visiting Sena Bhawan daily.
Further on, Uddhav Thackeray Raj made a very strong point and said that Uddhav isn’t trustworthy, he says one thing and does another thing.
He also lambasted the ED issue, saying that, even he was summoned by ED, “I visited their office and cooperated with them, and hence those clean shouldn’t worry about ED.”
