Sena chief raps Gadkari for appeal to Muslims

Cracks in the 20-year-old saffron alliance have surfaced once again.

Cracks in the 20-year-old saffron alliance have surfaced once again.

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Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray, has slammed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, Nitin Gadkari, for appealing to the Muslim community to give up the land on which the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya stood for the Ram temple.

Thackeray said the appeal was an insult to the ‘martyrs’ of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

“Appealing to Muslims is an insult to hundreds of kar sevaks who became martyrs during the Ram temple agitation,” said an editorial that appeared in the Sena’s mouthpiece, Saamna.

Thackeray is the editor of Saamna and the newspaper’s editorials are considered to be his opinions.

“If you need to seek the permission of Muslims to build the Ram temple, why was the agitation launched in the first place?

“Hindus could have fallen at the feet of the Imam of Jama Masjid and got a piece of land for the Ram temple. But they chose to shed their blood for it.”

Thackeray appealed to the BJP to stick to the Hindutva ideology.

“Things have come to such a level that Hindus have to plead to Muslims.”

The editorial said the leadership of “radical and jehadi Muslims” was not in India but in Pakistan.

“They tell Muslims in India what to do and how to behave,” Thackeray said.