In a covert dig at the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Shiv Sena on Wednesday debunked the ongoing efforts in certain quarters to appease Muslims, an exercise being carried out by its ally “by ignoring the crucial issues like Ram Mandir and the Uniform Civil Code”.
“In a bid to capture power, issues like Ram Mandir and Uniform Civil Code are being ignored, while special efforts are being made to bring in burqa-clad Muslim women to (Modi’s) rallies. There is a tearing hurry among all people to project themselves as secular and promote themselves as saviours of Muslims,” the Sena stated in an editorial published in its mouth-piece Saamana.
In the editorial that basically tore into senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s recent statement in Sharjah that “it is the religious minority in India that decides who gets the political majority,” the Sena ridiculed its long-time saffron ally, BJP, for competing with the Congress in trying to appease Muslims. “Instead of fighting or undoing the sins committed by the Congress vis-a-vis the minority community, all have joined the race to appease Muslims”.
Making no bones about its staunch opposition to the very concept of secularism, the Sena stated in its editorial: “Secularism is poison. Being secular is sin. The appeasement of Muslims will ultimately result in the country losing its very identity and cultural ethos one day”.
Informed Sena sources say that the indirect editorial criticism of the BJP and its poster boy Modi on the issue of Muslim appeasement will have no bearing on the alliance between the two parties. This is not the first occasion when the Sena has attacked the BJP in general and Modi in particular. There have been several occasions in the past, when the Sena has targeted its saffron ally and the Gujarat Chief Minister through the editorial columns of Saamana.