Bal Thackeray saved Modi when Vajpayee spoke about 'rajdharma': Uddhav

Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday (February 12) targeted the BJP, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi wouldn’t have come this far had Bal Thackeray not “saved” him when the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had asked him to follow “rajdharma”.

He said the Shiv Sena protected a political leadership for 25-30 years but they (BJP) didn’t want Sena and also the Akali Dal – the erstwhile members of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

‘Hating each other is not Hindutva’

“I fell out with BJP but I never abandoned Hindutva. The BJP is not Hindutva. Uttar Bharatiyas want answers on what Hindutva is. Hating each other is not Hindutva,” he told a gathering of north Indians in Mumbai.

Thackeray accused the BJP of creating a rift among Hindus.

“For 25-30 years, Shiv Sena protected a political friendship. Hindutva meant warmth amongst us. They (BJP) didn’t want anyone. They didn’t want Akali Dal… Shiv Sena,” he said.

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“It was Balasaheb Thackeray who saved the current prime minister when Atalji (then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) wanted him to honour Rajdharma. But Balasaheb intervened saying it was the need of the hour. Had that not happened, he (Modi) wouldn’t have reached here,” Thackeray said in an apparent reference to Vajpayee’s remarks asking then Gujarat chief minister Modi to follow “rajdharma” after the 2002 communal riots.

He said the Shiv Sena founder never nurtured hatred.

“Being Hindu never meant being Marathi and hating north Indians. Balasaheb was against those who were anti-India, irrespective of their religion,” he added.

Left the NDA to protect my dignity – Uddhav

Thackeray said he walked out of the alliance with the BJP to protect his dignity and joined hands with the NCP and Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls.

“…..Otherwise I would have been a slave with a belt around my neck just like some of my people have now become,” he said in an apparent reference to the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who belong to the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Thackeray said he became a victim of the smear campaign whenever he met north Indians or Muslims and questions were raised on his Hindutva.

Also read: MVA experiment wasnt wrong, Shiv Sena will have its CM again: Uddhav Thackeray

“My meeting with you has been criticized. If I meet Muslims, it is said I have given up Hindutva. When PM Narendra Modi came to Mumbai two days back, whose kitchen did he go to? If I had done that, I would have been called anti-Hindu. But if the prime minister does that, then it is said he has a big heart. I want to make it clear we have nothing against the Bohra community. They are with us,” he said.

During his latest visit to Mumbai, the prime minister inaugurated the new Marol campus of the Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah Arabic Academy, a prominent educational institution of the Bohra community, and said he had gone there as a family member of the community.

(With Agency inputs)