Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray lost his cool after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh greeted him with “Assalamu Alaikum” over a phone call to seek support for NDA’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, a report published in Maharashtra Times said.
As per the reports, Uddhav Thackeray spoke about the incident during his meeting with the remaining Shiv Sena MLAs at his residence at Matoshree. “We may have been a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, but we have not relinquished on Hindutva,” Uddhav had reportedly said while recounting his call with Rajnath Singh in the meeting.
Uddhav Thackeray had on Tuesday called a meeting with the Shiv Sena MLAs still loyal to him at his residence Matoshree. During the meeting, Uddhav said he got a call from Union Minister Rajnath Singh, who is tasked with the responsibility of building consensus among the opposition parties for NDA’s presidential candidate.
However, Rajnath Singh’s greeting “Assalamu Alaikum’ raised the hackles of the former Maharashtra CM, who was reportedly taken aback by the Union Minister’s use of Arabic salutation to greet him. “Assalamu Alaikum” are Arabic words used by Muslims to greet each other. Hearing Rajnath Singh’s words, Uddhav Thackeray’s temper flared and he reportedly said, “Even though we were a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, we have not given up Hindutva. You should keep this in mind.”
As per the report, after Thackeray’s disapproval, Singh greeted him with “Jai Shri Ram”.
It is worth noting that ever since Shiv Sena, under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray, formed an unnatural alliance with political rivals Congress and NCP after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, it has been accused of sacrificing Hindutva at the altar of the chief ministerial post.
The first signs of Shiv Sena dropping the Hindutva issue came to the fore when a Common Minimum Programme(CMP) was thrashed out between the allies of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. It appeared that in their thirst for power, Shiv Sena had given up on the Hindutva cause. In fact, there were speculations that the Congress and NCP wanted assurance from Shiv Sena that their Hindutva agenda is going to take a back seat once the government is formed.
After forming a government with NCP and Congress, Shiv Sena has drastically toned down its demand for a Bharat Ratna for the Hindutva ideologue and Freedom Fighter Veer Savarkar, indicating that Shiv Sena no longer champions the cause of Hindutva with the same intensity it once did. Reservations of up to 5 per cent for Muslims in Maharashtra were another such incident which demonstrated that Shiv Sena has abandoned the Hindutva cause.
Two and a half years after forming the government in Maharashtra, senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and an overwhelming majority of the party MLAs mutinied against Uddhav Thackeray, citing the party’s betrayal of Hindutva. The rebellion resulted in the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, after which Eknath Shinde became the chief minister of Maharashtra with the support of the BJP.
