No takers for Thackeray’s monument proposal

AURANGABAD, February 7: The much hyped proposal made by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, to build a national monument on the disputed site at ...

AURANGABAD, February 7: The much hyped proposal made by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, to build a national monument on the disputed site at Ayodhya instead of a Ram temple, had failed to evoke favourable response from opinion leaders and a large cross section of society and had to be subsequently withdrawn from the party’s election campaign, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi said here on Saturday.

Talking to newspersons while on the last phase of his campaign in Marathwada, Joshi said there was no ambiguity in his party’s stand on the construction of the Ram temple. "We were very much in favour of the temple, but when the Lok Sabha as well as the Supreme Court had failed to find an amicable solution, a via media had to be evolved. But unfortunately, when Thackeray came up with an alternative, it did not receive the kind of mass support one expected," Joshi said.

The temple issue had led to tension between the major and minor communities, Joshi said, and added that his party’s decision to drop the nationalmonument proposal had been made after a careful and in-depth analysis by its leaders.

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The Chief Minister made it clear that he had no intentions of shifting to the national political arena and that his comments made at a recent press conference in New Delhi were made in a lighter vein.

To a question, Joshi said he was not disturbed by the coming together of the RPI and Samajwadi Party with the Congress. Analysis proves that whenever particular communities come on a common platform, the majority community voters get consolidated with parties like us — the Sena and the BJP, he added.

The Sonia Gandhi effect had began to decline in Maharashtra with time, but we think it is our duty to educate voters not to fall prey to appeals to false emotions and sympathy, the Chief Minister said. "We are doing nothing wrong by attacking a woman who had taken a sudden plunge into national politics," Joshi said and added that it would be but natural for him to pinpoint Sonia’s weakness. The Shiv Sena was of the strongopinion that all Marathi-speaking areas should remain with Maharashtra and would oppose any move to bifurcate Vidarbha from Maharashtra, Joshi said. "We will certainly put pressure on the BJP which holds opposite views on the issue but I do not expect any tension between us two over it," Joshi said.

The Chief Minister ridiculed Sharad Pawar’s statement that he would topple the Sena-BJP government once Congress comes to power at the Centre, saying the Maratha leader was probably day-dreaming.

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