Mumbai: Hindutva, gaddar (traitors) and nishtha (loyalty). The 2 separate Dussehra rallies held in Mumbai Wednesday by the Shiv Sena’s competing factions noticed their leaders make speeches alongside predictable strains.
There was, nonetheless, a nuanced distinction. The point of interest of the speech made by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who addressed the rally of his insurgent faction on the Bandra Kurla Complicated (BKC), was a bitter criticism of his former boss, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray.
Nevertheless, Thackeray, marked out the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) as his fundamental goal, dismissing Shinde as somebody who merely “reads the BJP’s script”.
In the meantime, CM Shinde virtually validated the previous CM’s statements when he stated he’s proud to be “Modi-Shah’s hastak” (Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Residence Minister Amit Shah’s hand) and that Thackeray shouldn’t take them calmly.
“You make enjoyable of the PM? You’re calling the house minister Afzal Khan? The one that scrapped Article 370 from Kashmir? It was Balasaheb’s dream,” Shinde stated, including how the Modi authorities has additionally began work on the Ayodhya Ram Mandir.
“So, who fulfilled Balasaheb’s desires? Modiji and Amit Shah, and you make enjoyable of them? Don’t assume they’re weak. Those that known as him [Modi] chaiwalla, take a look at what has occurred to their social gathering. Your time too…,” Shinde stated, leaving his sentence hanging.
He added that he would slightly be “Modi-Shah’s hastak” than “Dawood-Yaqub Memon’s hastak,” referring to the BJP’s declare of Memon’s grave having been beautified beneath the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition authorities — comprising the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Get together (NCP) and Congress.
The 2 rallies come lower than a month earlier than a vital meeting bypoll in Mumbai, the primary for the reason that fall of the Thackeray-led MVA and a vertical cut up within the Shiv Sena.
The speeches have been additionally important contemplating Mumbai is more likely to maintain its civic polls later this yr or early subsequent yr.
Not directly slamming Shinde as a BJP stooge, Thackeray stated whereas the Shinde authorities is about to finish 100 days in energy, 90 of these should have been spent with the CM being in Delhi.
“I need to problem him (Shinde), let’s have one rally the place you converse with out studying the BJP’s script…Once I was CM, there have been about 5 – 6 press conferences, however Deputy CM Ajit Pawar by no means spoke in my ear,” Thackeray stated, referring to a press convention held in July the place Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis had snatched the microphone from the CM in the course of his handle.
Additionally learn: In 1st ballot battle since MVA govt fell, Congress & NCP again Uddhav’s candidate for Andheri East
‘Query is whether or not democracy will keep alive’
The Shiv Sena Dussehra rally has been an annual custom through which the Shiv Sena chief is understood to make a roaring speech, lashing out at rivals and setting the political tone for the social gathering’s cadre to comply with within the close to time period.
Nevertheless, for the primary time for the reason that Shiv Sena’s inception in 1966, the social gathering held two Dussehra rallies — Shinde’s at BKC and Thackeray’s at its conventional venue, Shivaji Park.
In June this yr, Shinde had led a insurrection of Shiv Sena MLAs inflicting the Thackeray-led MVA to fall.
Claiming to be the “actual” Shiv Sena, Shinde then joined arms with the BJP to kind the state authorities. The Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has been alleging that the BJP instigated the insurrection to complete the Shiv Sena.
Throughout his speech, Thackeray quoted BJP President J.P. Nadda as saying that no different social gathering will stay.
“I need to inform you, this implies there can be an autocratic authorities. Will you settle for this?….Now the query is whether or not the nation’s democracy will keep alive or not,” Thackeray stated, slamming BJP on subjects akin to inflation, forex depreciation and the alleged preferential remedy given to Gujarat for investments.
In the meantime, Shinde, referring to himself as a rickshaw-wala, made his insurrection a category situation, lashing out at Thackeray for allegedly working Shiv Sena like a “personal restricted firm” and claiming himself to be a typical Shiv Sainik who owns Bal Thackeray’s legacy.
“Can a rickshaw driver not be CM? Solely these born with a golden spoon, the zamindar, can grow to be CM? A chai wallah grew to become a PM, and you make enjoyable of him?” Shinde stated.
The ‘actual’ Hindutva
When Shinde led his notorious insurrection, he had cited the dilution of Shiv Sena’s unique Hindutva agenda beneath Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray’s management as one of many causes for strolling out of the MVA authorities.
Whereas Shinde continued the assault on Thackeray’s supposedly watered-down Hindutva, Uddhav clearly marked the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as his competitors, slightly than the Shinde-led faction.
Accusing Uddhav of forgetting his father’s teachings, Shinde stated, “Balasaheb made the slogan ‘Garv se kaho hum Hindu hain’ (say it proudly, we’re Hindus) well-known. However you additionally stopped referring to Balasaheb as Hinduhruday samrat and solely began referring to him as ‘paksha pramukh’ (social gathering chief).”
“Mantralaya had Shiv Sena jhanda (flag) and NCP-Congress agenda,” he added.
Rejecting the claims that he had deserted Hindutva after forging an alliance with the Congress and NCP, the previous CM stated, “Mohan Bhagwat went to a mosque. Has he left Hindutva? He went there to have a dialogue. However we went with Congress, so they are saying now we have stop Hindutva. What are you making an attempt to suggest?”
Thackeray insisted that his Hindutva is just not Brahminical and may be very a lot based mostly on Bal Thackeray’s ideology.
“The Shiv Sena pramukh had stated my nation is my Hindutva. So even a Muslim who loves his nation is my particular person…So I need to ask them, what’s your Hindutva?” Thackeray stated in his speech.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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