Malegaon: I consider Savarkar as my "idol" and Rahul Gandhi should refrain from "insulting" him, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said. Uddhav said the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance comprising Sena (UBT), Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was formed to protect democracy and it was necessary to work unitedly for it.
He made this remark while addressing a rally in the Muslim-dominated textile town of Malegaon in Nashik district of north Maharashtra on Sunday. Uddhav also claimed that there were deliberate attempts to provoke Rahul Gandhi and it will continue in the future as well.
"Savarkar is our idol and his insult will not be tolerated if we have to fight together to protect our democracy. Savarkar suffered unimaginable torture in the Andaman cellular jail for 14 years. We can only read the sufferings. It is a form of sacrifice," the former Chief Minister said.
I want to tell Rahul Gandhi that we have come together to save our country's democracy and its Constitution. But you are deliberately being provoked. If we allow this time to get wasted, then democracy will cease to exist. 2024 will be the last election, Uddhav warned.
I supported Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra. Rahul Gandhi's remarks were sharp when he addressed the press conference. He raised valid questions about whom does Rs 20,000 crore belong to. But the government doesn't want to answer, Uddhav said, adding that the BJP which has no connection with the country's freedom movement is trying to kill democracy.
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Uddhav also charged the saffron party of using the government agencies against the Opposition. NCP leader Anil Deshmukh's six-year-old granddaughter was questioned by probe agencies and Lalu Prasad Yadav's pregnant daughter-in-law was quizzed till she fainted. "If you criticise those in power, police will be after you," he said adding, "Modi is not India. Did our freedom fighters lay down their lives for this?"
During the press conference on Saturday, Rahul said the moot questions remain that who invested Rs 20,000 crore in Adani shell firms and what is the businessman's relationship with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi and Gandhi does not offer an apology to anyone," Rahul said in the press meet. Rahul was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after a Surat court convicted him in a 2019 criminal defamation case.
