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Aaditya Thackeray to BJP, INDIA ally Cong: 'Stop invoking Savarkar, Nehru for politics'
The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader said that the discussion on the Constitution should focus on the country's future.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday said that the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should stop blaming Jawaharlal Nehru or Vinayak Damodar Savarkar for the sake of their politics, and instead talk about future.
Thackeray was responding to question about Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi citing Savarkar's purported criticism of the Constitution in the House earlier in the day.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader said that the discussion on the Constitution should focus on the country's future.
"You must have heard (Congress leader) Priyanka ji (saying) that how long are you going to invoke Nehru. I agree with her that both Congress and the BJP are national parties and they should not go into the past, in history, but talk about future," he told reporters, according to PTI.
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"How long are you going to blame Nehru or Savarkar? How long are you going to drag them in your politics? How long (you would) dwell on what happened 50-100 years back? Today we need to talk about employment, inflation," Thackeray added.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader further said women, youth, senior citizens, the employed and unemployed in Maharashtra are seeking answers to their issues, reported PTI.
“You should talk about the history you want to create,” he said. "Instead of going into what happened 50 years ago, or what Nehru or Savarkar did, let's talk about how we are going to give employment to our youth."
What happened in Parliament?
Earlier today, Rahul Gandhi invoked Vinayak Damodar Savarkar to attack the BJP in Parliament.
He cited Savarkar's criticism of the Constitution that there was "nothing Indian about it" to attack the BJP and said the ruling party is "defaming and ridiculing" its own "supreme leader" when it talks about defending the Constitution.
Later, Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde invoked a letter written by former prime minister Indira Gandhi praising V D Savarkar, triggering heated exchanges in the Lok Sabha between the treasury benches and Congress members.
The BJP has often tried to embarrass the Sena (UBT) by citing its INDIA bloc ally Congress and Rahul Gandhi's criticism of Savarkar, a Hindutva icon whom the Uddhav Thackeray-led party reveres.
