It was my father who saved PM Modi: Uddhav Thackeray

In a fiery tirade against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray claimed that his father and Shiv Sena leader Balasaheb Thackeray saved him(PM Modi) when then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee asked him to follow “raj dharma”.

According to the former Maharashtra chief minister, PM Modi would not have gotten this far if Bal Thackeray had not’saved’ him.

The Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) chief invoked Vajpayee’s remark asking the then Gujarat chief minister to follow “raj dharma” in the wake of the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

Thackeray said at a public rally, “It was my father Balasaheb Thackeray who saved the current Prime Minister when the then Prime Minister Atal-ji wanted him to honour ‘Raj dharma. But Balasaheb intervened, saying it was an emergency. He (PM Modi) would not be in this position if that had not happened. They seem to have forgotten about us now that they are on top.”

In a veiled attack on the rebel Sena MLAs who defected to join the rebel faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, he said, “If I had been with the BJP, I would have been a slave with a belt around my neck, just like some of my people have now become.”

Thackeray accused BJP of spreading hatred in the country, saying, “They cause a rift among Hindus and Muslims and ignore other key issues that our country is faced with. That is not our Hindutava.”

“We broke the alliance but did not leave Hindutava,” he explained. Hindutva does not belong solely to the BJP. “I don’t believe in Hindutva, which they practise.”

“I never discriminated against Hindus or Muslims, or Marathis or non-Marathis,” he added.