“Bal Thackeray would not have saved PM…”: Uddhav Thackeray’s big claim

Mumbai:

Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday hit out at the BJP, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not have come this far if Bal Thackeray had not “saved” him when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had asked him to follow ‘Raj Dharma’. .

He said Shiv Sena protected a political leadership for 25-30 years, but they (BJP) did not want Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal – former members of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Addressing a gathering of North Indians in Mumbai, he said, “I parted ways with the BJP, but I never left Hindutva. BJP is not Hindutva. North Indians want what the North is Hindutva. Hate each other.” To do is not Hindutva.”

Uddhav Thackeray accused the BJP of creating a rift among Hindus.

“For 25-30 years, Shiv Sena protected political friendship. Hindutva meant warmth between us. They (BJP) didn’t want anybody. They didn’t want Akali Dal…Shiv Sena,” he said.

“It was Balasaheb Thackeray who saved the current Prime Minister when Atalji (then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) wanted him to respect ‘Rajdharma’. But Balasaheb intervened saying that it was the need of the hour. If so Otherwise he (PM Modi) would not have reached here,” Mr Thackeray said in an apparent reference to Vajpayee’s remark, in which Gujarat Chief Minister Modi was asked to follow “Rajdharma” after the 2002 communal riots .

He said that the founder of Shiv Sena never harbored hatred.

He said, “Being a Hindu never meant being a Marathi and hating North Indians. Balasaheb was against those who were anti-India, irrespective of their religion.”

Mr Thackeray said he walked out of the alliance with the BJP to protect his dignity and joined hands with the NCP and the Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) after the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections.

“…otherwise I would have been a slave with a belt tied around my neck like some of my people have become now,” he said in an apparent reference to the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs belonging to the Bala Sahebanchi Shiv Sena faction. In

Mr Thackeray said whenever he meets North Indians or Muslims and his Hindutva is questioned, he becomes a victim of a smear campaign.

“My meeting with you has been criticized. If I meet Muslims, it is said that I have left Hindutva. When PM Narendra Modi came to Mumbai two days ago, whose kitchen did he visit? If I did Had I been, I would have been.” He is called anti-Hindu.” But if the Prime Minister does this, it is said that he has a big heart. I want to make it clear that we have nothing against the Bohra community. They are with us,” he said.

During his latest visit to Mumbai, the Prime Minister inaugurated the new Marol campus of the Aljami-tus-Saifiyah Arabic Academy, a premier educational institution of the Bohra community, and said he was there as a family member of the community.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)