Mumbai:
Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday hopped on the Ram Temple bandwagon to revitalise his massively depleted Shiv Sena UBT faction, as he attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party over the donation theft scandal. The ruling party’s reply was swift and equally scalding — it attributed the former chief minister’s political decline to his alleged abandonment of “Lord Ram’s path”.
The BJP’s retort came from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, one of its most towering politicians in Maharashtra.
“Our only expectation was that he should remember Ram. He had abandoned Ram’s path. That’s why his party declined. If he walks the path of Ram, it will be good for him. Not just today, I expect that he will recite ‘Ram Raksha’ every day,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI in the state’s Gadchiroli.
Thackeray — who lost power and most of the party his father, Bal Thackeray, founded to a rebellion by confidante-turned-foe Eknath Shinde in 2022 — had to endure another exodus last month. Six of his party’s nine Lok Sabha MLAs defected to the dominant Shinde-led bloc.
Both factions claim to champion Bal Thackeray’s legacy. The rebels, however, claim his son, Uddhav, has strayed from his path by ditching its decades-old alliance with the BJP and joining hands with the Congress.
The six parliamentarians had told Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla last month that senior Thackeray Sena leaders had plans to merge with the Congress. Some of them said they jumped ship because of a dearth of funds to develop their constituencies.
Also read: ‘Sena-Congress Merger Plan’: What Six Rebel MPs Told Lok Sabha Speaker
What Uddhav Thackeray Said
Uddhav Thackeray seized upon the Ram Temple issue to return to his party’s age-old core agenda – furthering Hindutva.
On Sunday, he launched his “Ram Raksha” agitation and alleged that those looting Hindus are in power. Addressing a rally outside the Hanuman temple in Dadar, he recited “Hanuman Stotra”, “Hanuman Chalisa” and “Ram Raksha Stotra”.
“If anyone loots a temple by misusing Hindutva, then Hindus will not spare them,” he warned, giving a call to his supporters for what he called a “BJP-mutter Ram”.
“We are staunch Hindus who take pride in our country. We are innocent and naive but not fools. Now Hindus will not spare you if our Hindutva is misused to loot a temple,” he added.
Also read: Cops Trace Sources Of Rs 15 Lakh Transactions In Ram Temple Theft Case
Meanwhile, BJP chief Nitin Nabin accused the Opposition of having a history of “insulting” the Hindu faith.
“These are the same people who questioned Lord Ram’s existence, filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court calling Lord Ram imaginary, questioned the existence of the Ram Setu and ordered firing on kar sevaks,” he said, referring to the Opposition’s incessant attacks on the BJP over the temple theft case.
“We will take action, and we will rectify shortcomings wherever necessary. But these anti-Hindu forces, which have always insulted Hinduism, Hindu gods and goddesses, and played with our faith, have no moral right to preach politics to us. Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal do not think Hindu society is so weak that it will fall into your trap or act according to your dictates. We have seen you remain silent whenever Hindu gods and goddesses are insulted. We saw your silence when questions were raised over Hindu worship practices in Tamil Nadu and when the Ramcharitmanas was insulted in Bihar,” he added.
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