Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday mocked the BJP and accused Maharashtra’s caretaker chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of indulging in politics of fear.
In his column, Rok Thok, published in Sena mouthpiece Saamana, Raut said, “Hitler is dead and the looming slavery has vanished.” When asked about his reference to Hitler, Raut said, “Now, no one can buy or break MLAs… Such deals will no more happen in Maharashtra.”
Heaping praise on Congress, Raut said, “There may be some differences with the Congress on national issues, but we agree on some issues too. Congress is not our enemy… if Congress leaders are positive about supporting the Shiv Sena, the people of Maharashtra will welcome it whole-heartedly.”
In a veiled reference to Fadnavis’ attack on the Shiv Sena for remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Raut said, “Who is tom-tomming about morality? Those who commit adultery every day, are trying to impart lessons in ethical behaviour. They believe that people’s brains have become paralysed. This is their misconception…”
Raut said the air in Delhi has become polluted. “The politics of Maharashtra should remain in Maharashtra only. Maharashtra is not a slave of Delhi.”
In the recently-concluded Assembly polls, the BJP won 105 seats while its ally Sena won 56 seats. The majority mark in the 288-member Assembly is 145. However, since the poll results were declared on October 24, both the parties have been embroiled in a tug of war over the chief minister’s post.
Stating that after the elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Fadnavis and said only Fadnavis he will again become the CM, Raut said, “But 15 days have gone, Fadnavis has not been able to take the oath. This is because Amit Shah has remained aloof from the developments in the state” he said.
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He claimed the fact that the BJP’s biggest alliance partner, Shiv Sena, is not ready to talk to the outgoing chief minister, is their biggest defeat. “This is time Uddhav Thackeray will decide who will be Maharashtra’s chief minister,” he said.
Raut said Maharashtra’s tallest leader Sharad Pawar’s role will be important. “Several Congress MLAs have met Sonia Gandhi. They have told her that Maharashtra’s decision should be taken in Maharashtra. Maharashtra is speaking in one voice: Whatever happens, there should be no BJP government in place. This is because everyone wants to end vindictive politics and politics of slavery. Those who reigned for five years by spreading fears are themselves scared now. This is a counter attack.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut. (File)
