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Cows being protected, but India most unsafe for women: Uddhav Thackeray attacks BJP

Launching an attack at his estranged ally, the BJP, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said while cows were being protected, women in the country were unsafe. Without naming him, Uddhav also attacked BJP national president Amit Shah for trying to break the larger Hindutva coalition in Maharashtra that cut across linguistic and regional lines.

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Launching an attack at his estranged ally, the BJP, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said while cows were being protected, women in the country were unsafe. Without naming him, Uddhav also attacked BJP national president Amit Shah for trying to break the larger Hindutva coalition in Maharashtra that cut across linguistic and regional lines.

In an interview to Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut in the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamna' on Monday, Uddhav said while they were not advocating cow slaughter, “Hindustan had become the most unsafe country for women while cows were being protected.”

“Gomata must be protected, but what about our mothers?... this is not Hindutva,” Uddhav added, stating he did not agree with the vigilantism in the name of Hindutva.

“This is the divisive politics of those who claim to be today’s Chanakya. All Hindus must think about it,” said Uddhav, while replying to a question by Raut about a “divide and rule policy” being adopted to break the Shiv Sena’s larger Hindutva alliance which also comprised of non-Marathi speakers like Gujaratis, North Indians and Jains.

Uddhav pointed to how late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, Shiv Sainiks and Maharashtrians at-large had “protected” Gujaratis and Noth Indians during the 1992-93 Mumbai riots. “Those who are falling prey to false propaganda must remember this,” he stated while calling on Maharashtra to be united to counter the ploy to divide the state.

Also read: Miffed with Shiv Sena, Amit Shah tells party workers to be prepared to fight alone

Accusing the opposition parties of accepting their own weakness by questioning the Shiv Sena’s stand vis-a-vis the BJP, Uddhav said they never opposed for the sake of opposition. “We decided to stay neutral during the no-confidence motion. We will never go tumbling after anyone. I will not allow anyone else to fire their guns from the Shiv Sena’s shoulders. The Shiv Sena will fight the peoples’ battles....,” he explained, adding that other parties like Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) were reiterating the stand put forth by the Sena earlier.

Uddhav said they would not have attacked the Modi government’s decisions if they wanted to vote for it in Parliament. “The Shiv Sena had put forth the issues that others are stressing on today. Be it demonetisation, GST, the land acquisition law... then it was only the Shiv Sena that showed the guts to speak out,” he claimed, adding that joining ranks with the opposition and voting against the government made little sense as these parties had kept mum when the Shiv Sena was aggressive on these issues.

“The Shiv Sena is working to reign the government in. We have ministerial berths as the Shiv Sena and BJP were in an alliance in the previous Lok Sabha elections.... this was because like the people of the country, we felt that someone would change the way things were working in the country,” said the Sena president, adding that they would speak their mind when it came to the interests of the country.

Uddhav also reiterated his party’s opposition to the Nanar petrochemical complex that is proposed to come up at Ratnagiri.

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