Taking exception to the BJP’s recent flirtations with the Raj Thackeray-led MNS, the Shiv Sena on Thursday advised its senior alliance partner against creating atmosphere of “trust deficit” with it and asked the latter to follow “alliance dharma”, if it wanted to rule the country with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister.
In a strongly editorial published in the Sena’s official mouth-piece Saamana, party’s president Uddhav Thackeray debunked the “opportunistic” manner in which the BJP tried to cosy up to MNS chief Raj Thackeray last week and asked its alliance partner to mend its ways and create an atmosphere of trust that follows “alliance dharma’ in its pursuit of power at the Centre.
Maintaining that the Shiv Sena had all along been loyal to the BJP, Uddhav reminded the BJP of manner in which late Bal Thackeray stood by its party’s saffron ally, when Shankarsingh Waghela rebelled against his own party’s Government in Gujarat and offered to defect to the Sena in 1996.
“After rebelling against the BJP Government, Waghela had approached late Thackeray and offered to walk over to the Shiv Sena along with his MlAs so as to facilitate the formation of the Sena-led Government in Gujarat in 1996. But, late Thackeray was so magnanimous that he not only rejected Waghela’s offer, but also upbraided him for creating a split within the BJP. late Thackeray could have been opportunistic at that juncture and accepted Waghela’s offer. But, he did not,” Uddhav recalled.
“Modi’s rise was possible in Gujarat only because late Thackeray spurned Waghela’s overtures to the Sena and stood loyally by the BJP. Our friends in the BJP, who tried to reach out to the Sena deserters (read Raj Thackeray) recently, should through the pages of history of that time,” the Sena president said.
“Our ideology of Hindutva is not to capture power. We don’t don the mantle of Hindutva in sheer pursuit of power and there is no room for betrayal in Hindutva. Our ideology is Hindutva and will continue to be so irrespective of anyone being with us or not,” Uddhav said.
Exhorting the Modi-led BJP to practise “alliance dharma” if it was intent on capturing power at the Centre, Uddhav said: “If the BJP wants to come to power at the Centre with Modi as the Prime Minister, it should create an atmosphere of trust with all its allies. That’s why Kamalabai (BJP) should take initiative of warming up to its allies through a pancharti. Such an initiative, from the BJP, is in national interest”.
Uddhav said that while the Sena was capable of fighting its own political battles, it was in the BJP’s interest that it refrained from betraying its allies who have stood by it through thick and thin.
Alluding to the recent entry of the Ram Vilas Paswan-led party into the NDA and induction of BS Yedyurappa into the BJP, Uddhav said that these developments have not gone down well with the senior leaders of BJP itself.
“Advani is not happy with the entry of Yedyurappa into the BJP, while Sushma Swaraj has not accepted the entry of Vinod Sharma,” said Uddhav.