MUMBAI, April 11: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday hit out at BJP over the Babri demolition remark made by Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil and said when the mosque was being brought down “rats were hiding in their burrows”, an apparent swipe at the former ally-turned-rival.
Addressing a news conference here, Uddhav dubbed Patil’s remarks “an insult to Balasaheb Thackeray” and demanded chief minister Eknath Shinde either ask the minister to resign or step down from the post of CM. “It is infuriating because when the mosque was being brought down, all these rats.yes, all these rats, were hiding in burrows. No one was ready to come out,” he said in an apparent swipe at Bharatiya Janata Party.
In an interview with a regional news channel, Patil had said not a single worker of Shiv Sena was present near the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya when it was brought down.
Bal Thackeray has often been quoted as saying he was proud if any of his Sainiks had taken part in the demolition of the structure. Uddhav also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying Modi may have participated in a Bangladesh satyagraha, but he may be in the Himalayas during the Babri movement as his name did not figure anywhere in the mosque demolition.
He said PM Modi did not show the courage to make a special law on the Ram temple and the decision on the temple (construction) was given by the apex court.
Uddhav alleged the BJP lacked bravery and after the mosque was demolished in 1992, Shiv Sena was not in power. It was due to brave Shiv Sainiks and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray that Mumbai was saved (during communal riots post-Babri demolition), he added.
“Police were used in what happened in Gujarat and Ahmadabad. We did not even have the police. On the contrary, the police and the military were killing Shiv Sainiks and the traitors were on the other side. The fight was against the traitors,” Uddhav said.
He also referred to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat visiting mosques and said, “Now qawalis will be sung in madrassas. They will also claim that Babri mosque was brought down by us”.
The former Maharashtra chief minister said his party’s Hindutva is “nationalism” and asked the BJP to explain its Hindutva. (PTI)
