“The country is not the property of the Gandhi-Nehru family,” said an editorial in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna on Thursday.
The editorial criticised the state government and Nationalist Congress Party’s decision to name the Bandra-Worli sealink after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Attacking NCP chief Sharad Pawar, the editorial said: “Despite the humiliating defeat suffered by the NCP, Pawar and Praful Patel got to retain their portfolios. He has returned the favour by suggesting Rajiv’s name.”
“Many great persons have been born in Maharashtra… What prevented Pawar from suggesting the names of any of them?” it added.
It reiterated the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party’s old demand of naming the sealink after freedom fighter Veer Savarkar or Baba Genu or social reformer Mahatma Jyotiba Phule.
“If Rajiv Gandhi was such a great figure, then why did Pawar betray his widow Sonia in 1999 to walk out
of Congress?” the editorial added.
Ridiculing Pawar’s logic that Rajiv was born in Mumbai so it is apt to name the sealink after him, the editorial said: “Will Pawar name his Katewadi village or Baramati after Rajiv Gandhi?”
Sena activists on Thursday staged protests and tried to block traffic on the Worli-end of the sealink.
{{/usCountry}}Sena activists on Thursday staged protests and tried to block traffic on the Worli-end of the sealink.
{{/usCountry}}However, they were whisked away by the police.