India

If you have a brain beneath the black caps, then use it and understand: Uddhav

He was speaking at the yearly 'Dasara Melava', an annual event of the Shivsena for decades.

Credit : Indie Journal

Mumbai: Launching a stinging attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party and its attempt to raise an issue of opening temples in the state, Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shivsena supremo Uddhav Thackeray said that if you have any brains beneath the black caps (a part of the RSS attire) then use it and understand the crisis that the state and the nation are facing and stop trying to pull governments down. He was speaking at the yearly 'Dasara Melava', an annual event of the Shivsena for decades. The programme, which usually takes place on Shivaji Park and is attended by thousands, was held in a closed auditorium with just 50 attendants in lieu of the pandemic.

Speaking at the ceremony, the CM said that he will try to balance his speech between speaking as Shivsena supremo and the CM of the state, as 'he has to be responsible in what he says as a chief minister'. Yet, launching a blistering attack, especially targetting the state BJP, Thackeray seemed to be taking the most advantage of the freedom that the event granted him. He answered many allegations that the state BJP and the national media was trying to impose on him, portraying him as 'anti-Hindu'.

"Those who ask us about Hindutva today, forget that they were not even known to people other than their families when Balasaheb Thackeray invoked Hindutva. They ask me, 'have you forgotten Hindutva?', 'why won't you open temples', to them I say, the Hindutva that my father espoused wasn't about ringing bells of the temple or banging plates, it was a Hindutva that was for bashing terrorists," Thackeray said.

Referring to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's speech that took place earlier in the day, Thackeray urged the BJP to 'at least listen to your own mentor'. "Mohan Bhagwat said that politics is not about fighting a war with opponents. He understands that the country is going through a lot of crisis at the moment. This is why I ask their own political wing, the BJP, if they have any brains underneath the black caps, then understand this and stop trying to fell governments and focus on the state of the country instead."

He also went on a scathing attack on the central government, alleging unfair treatment to the state. "Looking at what you are focusing during a pandemic, it seems that people of Maharashtra are merely votes for you. For me, they are people made of flesh and bones. I go across the state seeing the farmers distraught by floods and wet famine and they ask for help. Where should we bring that money from? The centre has not paid a sum of Rs. 38,000 crores that it owes us in GST tax share. They ask us to get a loan, why should we when we have collected the taxes?"

 

 

"Other CMs must come together to demand reforms to GST"

Continuing his attack on the centre, Thackeray appealed for CMs of other states to come together and demand reforms to the Goods and Service Tax (GST). "When we ask for our dues from the centre, the state BJP leader [Raosaheb] Danve said that we are the ones who got married on our own, then why must we ask for money from the father? I say to him, He must be your father, not mine, my father is right here in my thoughts and actions. I would rather say, yes we got married, but those who were given the job of collecting the gifts and money packets in the wedding, ran away with it and are now refusing to even tell us what they did with it."

"When the GST was formed, Shivsena opposed it. We knew that taking away the rights to our own taxes will take away powers from the states. That exactly is what has happened. I urge the CMs of other states to come together and demand that the GST must either be reformed or it is better that we just repel it and go back to the old taxation system. I am urging the CMs to heed my call." 

 

"If Mumbai is PoK, then it is PM's failure"

Getting back at the controversial statement made by actress and BJP supporter Kangana Ranaut, Thackeray said, "Maharashtra has been attacked by a ten-headed Ravan. One head of the Ravan said that Mumbai is like Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). If that is so, then it is the Prime Minister's failure in curbing terrorism. How could he not stop it? The PM boasted back in 2014 that he will bring back the territory occupied by Kashmir. He hasn't even been able to bring an inch of that land back." 

"They portrayed Maharashtra as if all our land is filled with fields of Ganja and everyone is growing and selling drugs. Everyone knows where Ganja is grown the most. You ate cow dung and spewed cow piss like venom and now you are smelling the mouths of others for the foul smell," Thackeray said.

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