‘Cows safer than women in India’

Debunking the Hindutva practised by the ruling BJP, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Monday slammed the Narendra Modi Government over the continued incidents of mob lynching, by saying that given the emphasis on protection of cows, India had become “most unsafe” country for women in the world.

In the first instalment of a three-part marathon interview published in the Sena’s official mouth-piece “Saamana”, a candid Thackeray said: “We never have said that cows should be slaughtered..... In the name of protecting cows, India has become most unsafe country for women in the world.  We should be ashamed of this”.

“Yes. We should protect Gau mata (cows). What about our mothers? Instead of protecting women, the emphasis of some people is on going after people on suspicion that they are eating cow meat. I strongly disapprove of this kind of Hindutva,” Thackeray said.

Elaborating on the Hindutva practised by the Shiv Sena, Thackeray said:  “We believe that if the country is safe and secure, it is a place for Hindus....Late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray would say nationalism is our Hindutva. I do not want a Hindu who believes in going to temples and chiming bells or a person wearing scared threads... Our concept of Hindutva is as used practised by late Sena chief or Maratha warrior Shivaji”.

Taking an indirect dig at BJP’s national Amit Shah who is often described as a  “modern-day Chankya” for the manner in which he goes about power in state after state, Thackeray said: “Chankya used his neeti for the sake of the country. But, the fundamental difference is that the original Chankya neeti was for the welfare of the country, while current modern-day Chankya neeti is being used for the widening the party base. I do not need Chankya neeti for strengthening my party”.

“In the Chankya era, there were no elections. But in the Hitler era, the Goebbels neeti was used to carrying false propaganda. The neeti being used today leaves Goebbels tactics far behind..  The present day dictum is : I am the only patriot and rest are anti-nationals.... Can we construe that only those sitting in the Government are patriots and those speaking against the Government are all anti-nationals?  (Alluding to the debate on no-confidence motion against the Government in Lok Sabha) Don’t forget that people across the country have voted for all those who have been elected

to Lok Sabha?,” the Sena President said.

Justifying the Sena’s decision to stay away from the debate and voting on the no-confidence motion against the government in Lok Sabha, Thackeray said: “If we were vote to in favour of the Government, we would not have criticised the Government all these days on issues of public importance.. The Sena has all along spoken against the Government. Today, the Opposition parties are taking against the government. It was only the Sena that had in the past shown courage of talking against the Government. ... Being in the ruling alliance, should we join the Opposition to vote against the Government? What is that the Opposition parties have done that impresses to join them in the no-trust vote against the Government”.

Thackeray said that “nobody can use our shoulders to shoot” and the “Sena will not fire from someone else’s shoulders either.”

Thackeray said that he was satisfied that the TDP and all Opposition parties had the same stand against Government on various issues as the Sena had done so from time to time during the last four years. “We had said all these things earlier. If we had taken a stand against the Government, it was in the national interest,” he said.

Thackeray, whose party has repeatedly said that it would not align with the BJP in the elections in the future, said that while he agreed the BJP was a friendly party, we cannot be friends with just one party”.