Uddhav Thackeray defines Shiv Sena’s ‘secular’ Hindutva

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took the Shiv Senarsquos fierce Hindutva debate with the Bharatiya Janata Party northwards asking the frenemy to show guts to protect Kashmiri Pandits from terrorist attacks Defining the Senarsquos Hindutva he said unlike the BJP his party did not hate other religions abuse their Gods or prophets and put the entire country to shameThackeray was speaking at a rally in Aurangabad which is treated as Central Maharashtrarsquos Hindutva heartland by both the Sena and BJP Considering the civic polls the CM talked about local issues and also hit out at the BJP over various other issues including Hindutva He challenged the BJP to an open debate over the raging saffron agendaldquoYours is hollow Hindutva In Kashmir the Hindu people the Kashmiri Pandits are leaving their homes in fear But you donrsquot care about it Go there and read Hanuman Chalisa Go there if you are so brave Protest the Kashmiri Pandits Use the ED in Kashmirrdquo he said while promising the Kashmir Pandits all assistance in case they want to move to MaharashtraThackerayrsquos thickly crowded rally was held at the venue where his father the late Balasaheb Thackeray had delivered his many speeches The occasion also marked the 37th anniversary of the partyrsquos first shakha in the city where it has ruled for many years post the Hindutva wave A month ago Thackerayrsquos estranged cousin Raj had challenged the Sena from the same ground The CM took a dig at Raj over his Hanuman Chalisa against loudspeakers on masjid protest He said the BJP had contracted many like Raj and AIMIM to push its divisive agendaldquoMy father never asked sainiks to hate Islam He would say the country was our religion He asked us to confine our religious matters to the four walls But we are people who donrsquot hesitate from giving in the same vein when someone who is blinded by religion attacks usrdquo he saidReferring to the incident in which some BJP spokesperson have been accused of abusing Prophet Muhammad he said that the BJP leadersrsquo statements could not be held as representative of the whole of India ldquoThe Gulf countries have made us kneel before them The PMrsquos Narendra Modi photo was stuck on the waste bin It has happened because of lsquotin potrsquo spokespersons of the BJP not because of the entire countryrdquoReiterating that a SenaBJP realignment was impossible in future he asked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS to rein in its abusive children ldquoThey said I criticised the RSS in my last speech in Mumbai but I did not I still want the parent organisation to assess the behaviour of the BJP which has been using foul language against the opposition their familiesrdquo he said praising the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for speaking against the new trend of finding Shivlingam in every masjidThackeray said the Sena treated a Kashmiri soldier named Aurangzeb who was killed for taking out many terrorists as its own ldquoOne who fights for the country irrespective of his religious affiliation is the Senarsquos personrdquo he said The statement was important in view of the questioning of the Senarsquos lsquosecular Hindutvarsquo which the party has been professing after it started leading the Maha Vikas Aghadi government Aurangabad has a large number of Muslims The AIMIM beat the Sena in 2019 to represent the city in Lok Sabha Over the years the BJP has also increased its foothold in the cityThackeray said whenever the elections approached the BJP diverted attention from the real issues by raking up mandirmasjid issues He appealed to the people to ask the BJP about the promise of achche din Reacting to the CMrsquos speech the opposition leader Devendra Fadanavis said it was a case of selective memory loss ldquoThose who do nothing to reduce fuel rates are now talking about achche din They donrsquot do what they preach A lot was expected for the local people but what they heard was barbs only barbsrdquo he said