Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray pays tribute to the martyrs and victims of the 11/26 terrorist attacks. | Photo credit: IANS
Key points
- Thackeray highlighted his administration’s achievements, thanking fellow cabinet and bureaucratic officials for their cooperation.
- The Chief Minister alleged that central agencies were being misused
- Thackeray warned detractors that he would go after them
Mumbai: In an unrestricted interview with Sanjay Raut of Saamana, Uddhav Thackeray warned those who attacked him and his family not to forget that they too had a family. “You also have a family, you should look in the mirror, this can also happen to you. You are not clean either. If I chase you … although that is not my tendency,” he warned.
The chief minister also questioned the politics surrounding the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, saying that the opposition had tried to take advantage of the death of a young man. However, he rejected the question about Kangana Ranaut’s statements against the government. He also said that politics must be done with humanity.
Thackeray also dismissed questions about allegations of lack of free speech in the state, instead questioning why the death of a Marathi businessman was being disparaged. The reference was to the Anvay Naik case and the subsequent arrest of the director of the television channel Arnab Goswami.
In response to the opposition’s accusation of leaving Hindutva, Thackeray said that Hindutva was in his veins. “Don’t teach us Hindutva. Chhatrapati Shivaji brought the first administration of saffron to the country. Is Hindutva just about rituals and bells? That is not about the coronavirus, it is proven now,” he said. On the question of the jihad of love, the Chief Minister was evasive, but asked the BJP if their alliances with Mehbooba Mufti and Nitish Kumar could also be described as jihad of love.
With the BJP blowing the bugle for the 2022 BMC elections, Thackeray expressed confidence that the people of Mumbai will once again place faith in his party that has been in power in the civic body for more than two decades.
Uddhav Thackeray, however, continued his attacks on the Center and his alleged partisanship in distributing funds. “You have to put party politics aside in such cases. You take an oath to be fair and if you can’t, then you are unfit for office,” he said in a veiled reference to the prime minister.
Thackeray also said that central agencies were being misused against opposition-ruled states and praised Mamata Bannerjee’s fight against them. Responding to a question about the Opposition’s accusation that he had done nothing more than ask people to wash their hands, Thackeray warned that if the Opposition continued to attack him he would not hesitate to go after them. Thackeray also said he was happy with the cooperation of his three-party cabinet colleagues, saying that even bureaucrats had supported him from day one.
