MUMBAI, FEB 7: Almost a week after former Chief Minister Manohar Joshi's unceremonious exit, the Shiv Sena today termed the act Operation Bluestar of Maharashtra.Drawing parallels to Operation Bluestar launched by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to flush out militants from Golden Temple, the Sena mouthpiece Saamna said while Gandhi had deployed armed officials, Thackeray sent an unarmed Sena worker to hand over a personal message to Joshi, asking him to quit.In an unusual defence of Joshi's ouster, the article, signed by Saamna Executive Editor Raut has given reasons why Thackeray took the extreme step. Since Thackeray himself is the Editor of Saamna, observers see the article as the Sena chief's own statement. Among the reasons listed are losing confidence of the Thackeray clan and functioning like a CEO and ignoring the grass-roots level workers. The article said that Joshi gave too much importance to the bureaucracy, ignoring the party and its alliance partner BJP.The article hit out at Joshifor forgetting his mentor, Thackeray, and failing to carry out promises made by the party. It alleged that instead of chalking out a comprehensive action plan for providing employment to the jobless and providing free houses to 40 lakh slum dwellers, Joshi sought to buy time by appointing committees to look into the issues. It also came down on the former Chief Minister for failing to prevent vilification campaign against members of the Thackeray family, which was responsible for ``installation of the alliance Government''. The write-up also pinned blame on Joshi for leaking confidential papers to the media. His attitude caused damage to the alliance Government, particularly the Shiv Sena, the article said. Citing an instance, it said that despite the fact that Sena activists were not involved in vandalism at the BCCI office, police booked 14 Sena workers, one of them being a vibhag pramukh of Dadar.
