Raj Thackeray intensifies Hindutva pitch, Sena calls him ‘neo-Hindu Owaisi’

Without naming Raj directly, Sena likened him to Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis E Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)

Mumbai: A day after Raj Thackeray kick-started his party’s formal shift towards Hindutva and cleared the decks for a possible truce with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief was defiant on his demand that loudspeakers be pulled down from mosques. He warned that if these loudspeakers were not removed by 3 May, they would play the Hanuman Chalisa outside these religious structures. Further, the MNS chief also announced a rally at Aurangabad and a visit to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.

Pune: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray addresses a press conference in Pune, Sunday. (PTI)

Shiv Sena derided Raj as a “neo-Hindu Owaisi” who was working on BJP’s agenda. It alleged that there was a plan to foment communal trouble in Maharashtra to claim that there was a breakdown of law and order and then impose the President’s rule.

Without naming Raj directly, Sena likened him to Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis E Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), who is blamed by ‘secular’ parties for dividing their vote and thus indirectly helping the BJP.

Speaking to the media in Pune, Raj said he would visit Ram Temple at Ayodhya on 5 June and also hold a rally at Aurangabad on 1 May. He added that if the Muslims felt that “their religion or loudspeakers were greater than the law of the land, the Supreme Court and judicial system, then a tit-for-tat response was needed.”

Claiming that they did not want to disrupt the peace, Raj said they were not opposing Muslims praying, but the use of loudspeakers for it.

Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut charged that there was a plan to spark communal disturbances across Maharashtra and India.

“In Uttar Pradesh elections, BJP achieved a task through the AIMIM’s Owaisi, and in Maharashtra, they want to do this through the neo-Hindu Owaisi… There is a plot to use him to spark off riots in Maharashtra and escalate religious tensions,” he claimed.

“There is a plot to incite riots across the country. Constant attempts are underway to recreate what happened in Delhi, but they will not be successful,” added Raut.

“Attempts were made in Maharashtra yesterday to disturb the peace and stir tensions using the pretext of Hanuman Chalisa and loudspeakers,” he said, adding that the people and police showed patience and strength and did not allow this.

“In Maharashtra, it was the mission of the new Owaisi, the Hindu Owaisi to spark off riots in the name of Shri Ram and Hanuman, but we did not allow it,” Raut charged, not naming Raj directly.

Raut announced that Yuva Sena chief and environment minister Aaditya Thackeray will also visit Ayodhya. Notably, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has visited Ayodhya thrice in the recent past (November 2018, June 2019 and March 2020).

Aaditya said that his Ayodhya tour was not a political visit, but a devotional one and they would pray for the welfare of Maharashtra and the country. “We are boosting tourism there,” he said in jest when asked about his uncle Raj’s visit to Aurangabad. The environment minister said that the law and order situation in Maharashtra will not deteriorate.

Raut also questioned how attacks on Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti processions had started taking place only now and alleged that this was being done with an eye on the elections in Gujarat and Karnataka.

“These attacks are politically sponsored so that the social atmosphere of the country is vitiated and Hindu-Muslim riots in the country take place… as issues like the surgical strikes and the (promise of a) Ram Temple (at Ayodhya) will not work,” he charged.

Raut asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a “silent spectator” as there were riots in 10 states on Ram Navami and asked urged him to speak out.

The choice of Aurangabad for Raj’s rally is significant as the MNS is restricted to the Mumbai-Thane-Pune-Nashik belt. Aurangabad is a communally-sensitive city with a deep undertone of religious polarization in its politics. In the late 1980s, the Shiv Sena expanded out of Mumbai in the Marathwada region and Aurangabad using the growing tensions between the Hindus and Muslims. The Sena stronghold was however breached by Imtiaz Jaleel of the AIMIM in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

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Sanjay Raut on Sunday said that a meeting of chief ministers of non-BJP ruled states would be hosted in Mumbai. West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief had written to her counterparts in other states elaborating concerns on contemporary issues like activities of central investigating agencies and communal harmony. “This meeting will be hosted in Mumbai and we will invite people on behalf of Maharashtra,” he noted, stating that the decision was taken during a meeting between CM Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Reacting, BJP leader Madhav Bhandari said such meetings were in the past by leaders like Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Banerjee without evolving anything concrete. “Their politics is not for the welfare of their people but their selfish needs. They are not concerned with the sufferings of the people,” he added.