Mumbai, Nov 3 Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Tuesday took a dig at the ruling BJP over its ‘Save Democracy, Eradicate Anarchy’ protest, saying the saffron party is yet to shed its “opposition party mindset” despite being in power.
Thackeray also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a social media post mocking the Congress following the legislative council poll results last month, saying those in power should not react to every political event.
“The BJP has not come out of the opposition mentality, while the Congress has still not realised how an opposition party should act. They have only started to realise it after five years,” the MNS chief said during an event here.
The MNS chief further questioned how a ruling party could resort to a ‘Save Democracy’ protest.
He remarked that the BJP’s call to save the Constitution was akin to the old man on the KFC logo asking people to save chickens.
Last week, PM Modi mocked the Congress after its dismal show in the legislative council polls despite the use of paper ballots, a key demand of opposition parties in their campaign against EVMs. However, the trends reversed after his post, as the Congress went on to win the Nagpur Graduates constituency seat.
Thackeray said he could not recall any previous prime minister making such remarks targeting the Opposition.
Drawing a parallel from an event in state politics, the MNS chief recalled how Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray had once reacted to noted Marathi author P L Deshpande’s criticism of his working style.
Deshpande, the first recipient of the Maharashtra Bhushan Award, had expressed disapproval of muscle power (thokshahi) over democratic processes. To which, Bal Thackeray had hit back, stating that the then Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state had made a mistake in honouring him and that Deshpande should not have accepted the award if he objected to the Sena’s methods.
Raj Thackeray pointed out that even his uncle Bal Thackeray’s reaction at the time stemmed from an opposition party mindset.
(PTI News)
