Last Update: February 12, 2023, 23:46 IST
Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray. (File photo: PTI)
Thackeray said he walked out of the alliance with the BJP to protect his dignity and joined hands with the NCP and the Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday targeted the BJP by calling him Prime Minister Narendra Modi If Bal Thackeray had not ‘saved’ him when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee asked him to follow ‘Rajdharma’, he would not have come this far.
He said Shiv Sena protected a political leadership for 25-30 years, but they (BJP) did not want Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal – former members of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
I parted ways with BJP but I never left Hindutva. BJP is not Hindutva. North Indians want answers what is Hindutva. Hating each other is not Hindutva,” he told a gathering of north Indians in Mumbai.
Thackeray accused the BJP of creating a rift among Hindus.
Shiv Sena protected political friendship for 25-30 years. Hindutva means warmth among us. They (BJP) didn’t want anyone. They didn’t want the Akali Dal…Shiv Sena.
“It was Balasaheb Thackeray who saved the current Prime Minister when Atalji (then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) wanted him to respect ‘Rajdharma’. But Balasaheb intervened saying that it was the need of the hour. Had it not been so, he (Modi) would not have reached here.
He said that the founder of Shiv Sena never harbored hatred.
“Being a Hindu never meant being a Marathi and hating North Indians. Balasaheb was against those who were anti-India, irrespective of religion.
Thackeray said he walked out of the alliance with the BJP to protect his dignity and joined hands with the NCP and the Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections.
“…..otherwise I would have been a slave with a belt around my neck like some of my people have become now,” he said in an apparent reference to the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, who belong to the Balasahebchanchi Shiv Sena-led faction. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Thackeray said that whenever he meets North Indians or Muslims and his Hindutva is questioned, he becomes a victim of a smear campaign.
“My meeting with you has been criticized. If I meet Muslims, it is said that I have left Hindutva. When PM Narendra Modi came to Mumbai two days back, whose kitchen did he visit? Had I done so, I would have been called anti-Hindu. ‘ But if the Prime Minister does so, it is said that he has a big heart. I want to make it clear that we have nothing against the Bohra community. They are with us,” he said.
During his latest visit to Mumbai, the Prime Minister inaugurated the new Marol campus of the Aljami-tus-Saifiyah Arabic Academy, a premier educational institution of the Bohra community, and said he had moved there as a family member of the community.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)