Killing, lying, using religion for power not my Hindutva: Uddhav

Shiv Sena chief and Maharashtra chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said he has not abandoned Hindutva just as the Congress party has not let go of

Shiv Sena chief and Maharashtra chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said he has not abandoned Hindutva just as the Congress party has not let go of secularism. He stressed that the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of the Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress works in the framework of the Constitution.

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The CM said that using religion to grab power, to kill and creating national unrest, is not his idea of Hindutva. “If you run the government as per the Constitution; then how can you say that you have surrendered? I am Sena chief and Hindutva is our ideology. Congress hasn’t given up its secularism. But as a government, we are following things that should be done as per the Constitution,” Thackeray said in the latest instalment of a three-part interview which was released on Wednesday.

In a sharp attack on the BJP over its Hindutva agenda, Thackeray said, “Using religion to gain power is not my Hindutva. Absolutely not. They say that they want a Hindu nation. But if the Hindu nation is going to burn like this, I do not want it. My definition of Hindu rashtra (nation) and theirs [BJP’s] is different. Killing one another is not Hindutva. Spreading lies about Hindutva and misusing it to gain power is not my Hindutva.”

Thackeray also called for infiltrators from Pakistan and Bangladesh to be thrown out of the country at the earliest. However, he likened the process of removing infiltrators to demonetisation. “This stand was taken by Balasaheb. Nobody should take credit for it. This is not our new stand. For just a few percent of fake currency notes, you demonetised the currency notes. Similarly, you are making the entire country stand in a queue for a few percent of infiltrators. This government has a strange policy of always keeping the people under tension,” he said.

The CM dispelled rumours that the ‘remote control’ of the government lies with NCP chief Sharad Pawar. “There is no question of remote control. If Sharad Pawar has suggestions, he makes them,” he said.