Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday created a sensation in the national political circles by dubbing the “Operation Sindoor” launched by the Indian armed forces against Pakistan as a “failure” and demanding the resignation of Union Home Amit Shah over the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
Talking to media persons here, Raut – a close aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and party’s chief spokesperson — said, “As I have said earlier, ‘Operation Sindoor’ was a failure. However, in the interests of the nation, we the Opposition members are not speaking about it,”
Holding Shah directly responsible for the Pahalgam attack, Raut said, “Why was Operation Sindoor needed? terrorists removed the sindoor from the foreheads of our mothers, sisters and daughters, why did Pahalgam happen? It is solely and solely because of Shah, he should resign, in fact, Modi should have sought his resignation, he has been unsuccessful as the Home Minister”. Demanding to know as to why the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam incident had not been caught, Raut “Where are they? Where have you hidden the terrorists involved in Operation Sindoor? In Gujarat, in Dahod? Modi was in Dahod yesterday, he was roaring from the place where (Mughal emperor) Aurangzeb was born,” Raut said.
Coming down heavily on the Union Home Minister, Raut said, “Shah is trying to teach us, he is travelling across Maharashtra in Nanded, he visited the home of ‘Adrsh-fame’ Ashok Chavan and had dinner, they had aamras-puri and dhokla, see the photos”. It may be recalled that Chavan – who was the chief minister of Maharashtra from December 8, 2008 to November 9, 2010 – had resigned from his post after he faced allegations of misuse of office in the much-discussed Adarsh Society scam. Targeting both Modi and Shah, Raut said: “Today these people (BJP leaders) are saying that late Balasaheb Thackeray should have been alive. Had Balasaheb been alive, these people would have atoned for their mistakes. Because we saved both Narendra Modi and Shah, we saved one from murder, while we saved another from losing his chief ministership. “Hey are targeting us…the BJP broke the Shiv Sena as Uddhav Thackeray did not fall at their feet,” he said. “They were in Nanded, yesterday Mumbai was sinking because of rains, who is in-charge of Mumbai’s administration as there is no elected body, it is (Deputy Chief Minister) Eknath Shinde, who is the Urban Development Minister,” Raut said. Shinde, who rebelled against then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and teamed up with the BJP to become the chief minister of the BJP-led MahaYuti government.
“The BJP has been in power at the Centre for the past 11 years, in the state they have been in power for three-and-a-half years, still for anything and everything they would blame Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh,” Raut said. Slamming Modi for agreeing to ceasefire with Pakistan under pressure from the US president, Raut said, “Veer Savarkar spoke about Akhand Bharat, but the armed forces were asked to stop at the orders of (United States) President Donald Trump.”