‘Will Uddhav Thackeray ask Rahul Gandhi to apologise for insulting Savarkar’, asks Shinde Sena

While responding to the Opposition leaders’ press conference ahead of the INDIA meeting, Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar said that “all these parties were the epitome of dynasty politics”. According to Kirtikar, 17 parties among the total 28 in the alliance were “trying to further the cause of dynasty politics and not the country’s development”.

“There are a lot of contradictions between the constituents of INDIA, and the sad picture is that Uddhav Thackeray is going to welcome party leaders who have taken a stance against Hindutva. Thackeray is taking the initiative to make the directionless Rahul Gandhi the Prime Minister. He will welcome and host all those who are anti-Hindu — be it Samajwadi Party leaders who ordered to fire at the ‘kar sevaks’… or Lalu Prasad Yadav who stopped L K Advani’s rath yatra for the cause of Ram Mandir,” asserted Kirtikar.

Hitting out at Uddhav, Sena leader Dipak Kesarkar said the former has “abandoned Bal Thackeray’s ideologies and hailed British’s contribution to India’s development”. “Are not you ashamed to say that the British, who looted our country, also contributed to India’s development?” he asked, further reminding that Mumbai — the venue of the INDIA meeting — carries the identity of “Bal Thackeray’s Mumbai”.

“When Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had insulted Veer Savarkar, Balasaheb ensured that he never entered Mumbai,” Kesarkar said, while terming “Uddhav the puppet of the Congress”. “Will all these leaders, who have come to Mumbai, visit Balasaheb’s memorial? Are you going to question them for insulting Savarkar? Balasaheb supported abolishing of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. Is this going to be discussed during the meeting? Balasaheb had said that he would not allow Sena to become Congress. Balasaheb’s thoughts that he will dissolve the party, but will not join the Congress, are being trampled on,” Kesarkar added.

The minister also said that if Uddhav holds the allies in such high regard, he should take all of them to Balasaheb’s memorial and make them pay respects to the leader.

‘INDIA — old wine repackaged in new bottle’

Kesarkar also said that “renaming the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) as INDIA was nothing but an attempt to mislead people, since UPA was a symbol of corruption”. “You changed the name because of massive corruption in ‘UPA’. You were never accepted by the people of the country… You have changed your name to INDIA — a new name to shield corrupt practices. But even if the name has changed, people in the alliance remain the same. It is nothing more than repackaging the old wine in a new bottle,” he said.

The Shiv Sena leader also said that corruption during the UPA governance came to light after Anna Hazare’s movement. “Politics is based on ideologies, but you have no ideology. If ideology is different, you cannot stay together. They are attempting to mislead the people. But the people of Maharashtra will not fall for it,” he asserted.