You will always be traitors, bellows Uddhav

Mumbai: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray launched an all-out attack on Shinde and his band of rebels at the traditional Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park on Wednesday

Mumbai: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray launched an all-out attack on Shinde and his band of rebels at the traditional Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park on Wednesday. Likening the group to Ravana, he called for them to be politically decimated.

Mumbai, India - October 05, 2022: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray addressing the gathering during Dusshera Rally, at Shivaji Park, Dadar, in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, October 05, 2022. (Photo by Pratik Chorge/Hindustan Times) (Pratik Chorge/HT PHOTO)

“I will call them (the Shinde camp) gaddars (traitors). You are ministers for some time, but the taint of being traitors will always stay with you,” he lashed out. “As per our convention, we will incinerate an effigy of Ravana after this rally. This time, the Ravana is different. As time changes, so does Ravana. Till now, Ravana had 10 faces… now, he is a khokasur and dhokasur (demon of betrayal) with 50 khokas,” alleged Thackeray, referring to the Sena’s ‘50 khokas’ jibe at party defectors, which claims that they took cash to switch sides. Without naming Shinde directly, Thackeray referred to him as ‘Katappa’ or one who hatches conspiracies (kat).

In a reference to a chapter from the history of the Marathas, Thackeray derided Shinde’s coup as a “totayanche banda” or the “rebellion of the duplicates,” and claimed that they were trying to impersonate Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray in a bid to usurp his legacy. “Like Ravana kidnapped Sita, these totayas (pretenders) are trying to use Balasaheb’s face to hijack the Shiv Sena,” he charged.

He lamented that Shinde and his men had left the Shiv Sena despite the party giving them ministerial berths and public offices and also accused Shinde of perpetrating dynastic politics.

Referring to Shinde’s claims that the Sena had watered down its Hindutva by joining hands with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Thackeray pointed out that the erstwhile Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government under him had renamed Aurangabad and Osmanabad as Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv with the support of the two parties. “Then, did we leave Hindutva? On the contrary, we grew Hindutva by taking them with us,” he claimed.

Thackeray also dared Shinde to a debate on Hindutva and claimed that the BJP and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis were dictating terms to Shinde.

Noting that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had spoken about giving equal rights to women in his Vijayadashami speech, Thackeray took the BJP to task over the murder of Ankita Bhandari (19) in Uttarakhand, after she allegedly refused to provide sexual services to clients at a resort owned by a BJP leader and also over the Gujarat government’s decision to grant remission to the 11 convicts sentenced to life for gang-raping Bilkis Bano. He claimed that the Shiv Sena’s Hindutva had a principle of not committing any acts of violence directed at women.

Thackeray said he was the “militant son of a militant father” and resolved that the Shiv Sena would again make its man the chief minister of the state. He also reiterated his claim that union home minister Amit Shah had promised to split the Maharashtra chief minister’s post equally between the Sena and the BJP and then gone back on his word.