The Hindu : Be prepared for civil war, says Thackeray

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 11, 2002

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Be prepared for civil war, says Thackeray

By Arunkumar Bhatt

SHIRDI (Maharashtra) April 10 . The Shiv Sena leader, Bal Thackeray, has exhorted his followers to be prepared for a "bloody civil war round the corner, ahead of a Pakistani attack."

This is not the first time that Mr. Thackeray has talked of a "civil war". But his earlier warning was in the context of political instability at the Centre, while the latest one is linked to the worsening communal environment in the country.

``The uprising of the Muslims shows that,'' Mr. Thackeray told the concluding session of his party's convention here today. He described it as a "green'' thorn in India's flesh and said he would not leave the scene till he removed it.

Mr. Thackeray sharply criticised the Congress and the communists for not accepting the fact that the Ahmedabad violence was a reaction to the burning of train passengers earlier at Godhra. He said the secular parties were biased and anti-Hindu.

The same parties had justified the outbreak of communal violence in Mumbai in 1992-93 as a "reaction" to the demolition of the Babari Masjid in Ayodhya "but now they do not want to accept that the Ahmedabad killings are the reaction. You cannot have separate yardsticks for Muslims and Hindus.''

He said not a single secular leader or party said anything against the attack on the Raghunath temple in Jammu because the victims were ``Hindus".

He said the Congress campaign against the Narendra Modi Government was nothing but the result of Sonia Gandhi's "lust for power in Gujarat after securing Punjab and Uttaranchal."

He did not spare his only ideological ally, the BJP and said its strength was getting eroded as it had moved away from its Hindutva ideal. "This is the curse of Hindus on the BJP,'' he said.

The convention proceedings show that the Sena is reasserting its "Hindutva" stance as the BJP in its view has adopted a "diluted approach" in view of coalition compulsions.

Mr. Thackeray called upon the Shiv Sainiks to "burn down secularism" and asserted that nobody should try to tell him that India was not the "Hindu Rashtra.'' The word "secular" had no mention in the Constitution but it was Jawaharlal Nehru who got it inserted.

Earlier, his son, Uddhav Thackeray and nephew, Raj Thackeray said the Sena would never leave Hindutva.

Raj Thackeray called upon the party to ignore what the secular parties were saying.

The real story of Godhra was not reported, he said and alleged that women were abducted from the Sabarmati Express after the attack and the mutilated bodies of three of them were found.

Nephew's posers

SHIRDI (Maharashtra) April 10.

The nephew of the Shiv Sena leader, Bal Thackeray, Raj Thackeray is an angry man for the press, which had kept him in focus after Chhagan Bhujbal's allegation that he (Mr. Raj Thackeray) was involved in the murder of Ramesh Kini. The same media had not focussed on Afroze, who had been released from jail or the Congress-NCP led Democratic Front Government in Maharashtra that had let him off, he said.

The press has also not exposed the acts of commission and omission of Mr. Bhujbal, he said.

``When Ms. Sonia Gandhi asks the Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, to withdraw the POTO charges in the Afroze case and when the latter obliges, it is not called a "remote control" act and no editorials are written,'' he said.

The Kini case had become a staple story for the local press those days. But the same media largely ignored the acquittal of Mr. Ashutos Rana, an accused in the case and an associate of mine, Mr. Thackeray said.

Later, Mr. Raj Thackeray, accompanied by the Union Minister, Manohar Joshi, came to the press box and exchanged pleasantries with the reporters.

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