NASHIK, Feb 28: Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said he felt sorry for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who had do a difficult balancing act to keep Samata, Mamata and Jayalalitha in good humour, observing that in the PM's place he would have been compelled to resign.Addressing a public meeting last night at the Golf Club ground, after it's renaming to honour veteran freedom fighter the late Anant Kanhere, Thackeray said if the Vajpayee government collapsed and was replaced by a government headed by Sonia Gandhi, it would lead to a civil war. As he saw it, Sonia's rule would subsequently place the country into the hands of the army.Thackeray deplored the Vajpayee government's overtures towards Pakistan saying that when the PMs were mouthing feel-good phrases 20 Hindus were being gunned down in Kashmir by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists.He said political parties that were vying with one another to appease minorities, especially Sonia Gandhi, who visited the Dangs after the alleged attack onChristians, were conveniently sidestepping the happenings in Kashmir.Thackeray saw a `conspiracy' in films like Fire, in which the characters `misleading youngsters' had Hindu names.He also expressed shock at `Shahrukh Khan and other Khans' hogging the limelight at the Filmfare awards recently, and deplored the fact that there were no better actors left. He asked people to see through the conspiracy and counter it.He lambasted the media for deliberately maligning the Sena's image.Thackeray urged Shiv Sainiks to reach out to the masses with the welfare schemes of the Sena-BJP government.
