The Mumbai unit president of the BJP, Ashish Shelar, on Tuesday slammed Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray for saying at a recent public rally that the saffron party would be wiped out.
He said Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had “tried to wipe out the forces of Hindutva and everybody knows what happened to him”.
“Thackeray will meet a similar fate,” he said.
Shelar criticises Thackeray over Hindu Jan Akrosh rallies
Shelar criticised Thackeray for questioning the Hindu Jan Akrosh rallies organised by the Sangh Parivar to protest against ‘love jihad’ and ‘land jihad’. He said Thackeray supporters had placed an obstruction on the path of the Gudi Padwa procession organised in Girgaum by the Vivekananda Mitra Mandal and the Sena (UBT) had not responded to the attack on a Ram Navami procession recently.
Shelar also asked whether Thackeray could guarantee that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi would not ridicule Veer Savarkar in future.
He said Thackeray’s response to Gandhi’s criticism of Savarkar was at best lukewarm. He said Savarkar was worshipped in Maharashtra and he occupied a pride of place in the pantheon of patriots.
“But because of Thackeray’s party’s alliance with the Congress, the former has not taken a strong position on Gandhi’s controversial statement against Savarkar,” Shelar said.
Asked why the BJP government had not conferred the Bharat Ratna on Savarkar, Shelar said: “Why the Congress, which was in power for 50 years, did not give the award?”
He said so far 16 Savarkar Gaurav Yatras have been taken out and 20 more are in the pipeline.
On April 5, a musical show based on the songs composed by Savarkar will be performed at the Savarkar Smarak Hall at Shivaji Park, which will be attended by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and others.
Noted actor Sharad Ponkshe will also deliver a talk on the late patriot. Entrance is free. “I will send two tickets to Uddhav Thackeray and [his son] Aaditya for the show. Hope they attend,” Shelar said.
