Shiv Sena remains a Hindutva party, will not play Hindutva politics: Sanjay Raut

The Shiv Sena leader slammed demands for renaming New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) after Swami Vivekananda, calling it vindictive politics

Maharashtra’s ruling Shiv Sena on Tuesday insisted it remains a Hindutva party, which will stand up for the ideology whenever required.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut. (HT Archive)

“We do not need to get our Hindutva certified from any party. We were; we are and we will always be pro-Hindutva. We do not play Hindutva politics like them. Whenever the country needs us, Shiv Sena will always come forward wielding the sword of Hindutva,” said Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut after paying his respects to the party’s founder Bal Thackeray on his eighth death anniversary.

Shiv Sena ended its decades-old alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party last year to form the government with Congress and Nationalist Congress Party’s help in Maharashtra.

Raut said Shiv Sena’s leadership was carrying forward Bal Thackeray’s teachings and ideology. Raut added Thackeray spearheaded the issues of “the sons of the soil”, which is now being invoked by political parties across the country. “Balasaheb took up the issues of sons of soil and unemployment 55 years ago. Today, the same issue is the mainstay of all social and political movements. The recent Bihar elections too were centred on these two issues.”

Raut separately slammed demands for renaming New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) after Swami Vivekananda, calling it vindictive politics.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week unveiled a statue of Vivekananda on the JNU campus.

Raut said the Centre should establish another university and name it after Vivekananda. He added that Nehru’s legacy cannot be undone by renaming institutions. “Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has always remained the pride of this country.”