Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, known for his mild temperament, was unusually scathing on Sunday as he dared his detractors (read the BJP) to topple his government. He further ran down the BJP dispensation at the Centre as a ‘railway wagon’ – the latter in response to the charge that his government was just a rickety auto rickshaw with three wheels.
Talking to Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut in the second and concluding part of his interview in the Saamna on Sunday, the Chief Minister also set a cat among pigeons by calling for a virtual bhoomi puja for the Ram temple.
Acutely aware that his party may not get the kind of traction the BJP would at the ground breaking ceremony at Ayodhya, where Uddhav would be just another chief minister who has been ‘invited,’ the MVA chief minister tried to make a virtue out of his suggestion for a virtual puja by linking it to social distancing – the need of the hour in the pandemic.
‘‘An e-bhoomi pooja can be conducted. This is an event of great joy, and lakhs of people would be interested in attending the ceremony. But can we allow the coronavirus to spread?" Thackeray demanded in the interview.
Warming up to the theme, he added: This is not an ordinary temple. What about lakhs of Ram bhakts? Can you stop them from going? Why not then have a virtual pooja," he suggested.
The pièce de résistance was Uddhav’s suggestion that a bullet train linking Mumbai to the state’s second capital Nagpur made more sense than one on the proposed Mumbai- Ahmedabad route. He added that there was also no need for the proposed bullet train view of the opposition from land owners.
Referring possibly to the recent developments in Rajasthan, he added that rebel leaders may succeed in inducing horse trading, but they seldom made it to the top post and were invariably discarded after ‘use’.
Challenging the opposition BJP to oust his government, Thackeray stressed that he was firmly in the saddle. “Some people claim that the government will be toppled in August-September. I am asking them to destabilise it now, instead of waiting,” dared Uddhav.
He underscored that the state government was gradually finding its feet. “The steering is in my hands. The two others (the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party) are sitting on the rear seat. Let me make one thing clear... one-party rule is a distant dream,” Uddhav asserted, dwelling on the new dynamics of coalition rule.
He further said the initial misgivings of the Congress about him had been dispelled. “Our government is a three-party coalition. But, tell me, how many parties comprise the Central government?” asked Uddhav, adding that if his government could be likened to a rickshaw with three wheels – which was the preferred vehicle of the poor -- the Narendra Modi-led dispensation was a railway wagon.
