News Analysis India

Tag: Bal Thackeray

  • Shiv Sena workers `purify’ Bal Thackeray memorial after Narayan Rane’s visit

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Hours after Union minister Narayan Rane paid tributes at the memorial of the late Bal Thackeray here, Shiv Sena workers on Thursday washed the area with `gomutra’ (cow urine) and performed milk `abhishek’ to `purify’ it.

    Some Sena leaders had earlier objected to the visit by Rane, who fell out with the party founder Bal Thackeray, his mentor, in 2005, to the memorial in the Shivaji Park area of central Mumbai.

    After his visit, Appa Patil, a local Sena worker, washed the spot where Rane had offered floral tribute with cow urine, and performed `abhishek’ on the portrait of the late leader by pouring milk.

    “Rane came here to pay tributes to Balasaheb, but at the same time he criticizes the party formed by him. This place had become impure by his visit, so we wanted it to clean it up,” Patil told reporters.

    Rane, a former Maharashtra chief minister who quit the Sena to join the Congress and later crossed over to the BJP in 2019, started his ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’ in Mumbai on Thursday.

    He was inducted in the Union cabinet recently.

    Local Sena MP Vinayak Raut said Bal Thackeray would never give blessings to people such as Rane.

    On Wednesday, Raut had said that Shiv Sainiks will not allow the Union MSME Minister to visit the memorial as he had split the party founded by Thackeray.

    But Sena workers did not stage any protest during Rane’s visit.

    The BJP criticized the Sena workers’ act of washing the memorial.

    Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Pravin Darekar said that Bal Thackeray was not anyone’s “private property”.

    Ashish Shelar, another BJP leader, said the Sena should stop such “nautanki” (drama).

    “The party should first purify itself for joining hands with Congress, and also the NCP whose leader Chhagan Bhujbal had put Balasaheb in jail,” he said.

  • Narayan Rane has no moral right to visit Balasaheb’s memorial: Sena MP

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Union minister Narayan Rane has no moral right to visit the memorial of late Bal Thackeray as the former’s actions of “breaking the Shiv Sena” caused a lot of pain to the party founder, Sena MP Vinayak Raut has claimed.

    Former Maharashtra chief minister Rane, who was earlier with the Sena before joining the Congress and subsequently switching over to the BJP in 2019, is scheduled to begin his ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’ in Mumbai on Thursday and visit the memorial located at the Shivaji Park in Dadar area later in the day.

    Lok Sabha member Vinayak Raut told reporters on Wednesday that Shiv Sainiks will not allow Union MSME Minister Rane to visit the memorial of Bal Thackeray.

    “Maharastra hasn’t seen a betrayer like Rane, whose actions of breaking the Shiv sena caused lot of pain to late Balasaheb. He (Rane) has no moral right to visit the memorial. The Shiv Sainiks will not allow it,” Raut said.

    However, BJP leader and former state minister Sudhir Mungantiwar dubbed the Sena’s stand of not allowing Rane at the memorial as “narrow-minded attitude”.

    “Paying tributes to Balasaheb is not like shares or equity of any company. Anyone can go there (at the memorial) to pay respects,” Mungantiwar said.

    A number of newly-inducted Union ministers have been carrying out ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatras’ in various states to reach out to people and thank them for the BJP’s victory in elections in the recent past.

  • Uddhav lays foundation for Bal Thackeray memorial; BJP, MNS not invited

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday laid the foundation stone of late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s memorial at Dadar in central Mumbai, even as the opposition BJP and the MNS slammed the state government for not inviting their party leaders to the function.

    The event took place in the former official mayoral bungalow near Shivaji Park, where the memorial is proposed to be set up at the cost of Rs 400 crore.

    State Deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar, Revenue Minister and Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat, among others, were present on the occasion.

    Approval for the project had been given during the tenure of previous chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is now the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly.

    However, the state government did not invite Fadnavis as well as Uddhav’s cousin and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray for the event citing the spike in COVID-19 cases.

    The BJP and the MNS criticised the Shiv Sena-led dispensation over it.

    “When Fadnavis was the chief minister, he took extra efforts in getting the necessary clearances from the Centre for the memorial. Old mayor’s bungalow is a heritage site, still he helped in obtaining all kinds of nods. Hence, not inviting him to the event shows Shiv Sena’s mean treatment,” BJP’s Pravin Darekar, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, said.

    MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande said, “If several ministers and their staff can attend the event at the old mayor’s bungalow, then why not invite Raj Thackeray?” “Raj Thackeray had served in the Shiv Sena for many years. He has contributed to that party, but selectively not inviting him is not a healthy way of politics,” he said.

    In the first phase of the memorial construction, Rs 250 crore will be spent on the works like electrification and parking facility.

    The first phase is likely to be completed in 14 months.

    The Shiv Sena is in power in the state with the NCP and the Congress.

    These three parties had joined hands after the 2019 Assembly polls results to keep the BJP way from power.

  • Tribal leaders object to renaming of zoo after Bal Thackeray

    By PTI
    NAGPUR: Various tribal organisations along with some BJP leaders staged a protest in Nagpur on Tuesday, demanding a change in the name of an international zoological park here, which has been renamed after Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray.

    The Maharashtra government recently renamed the Gorewada International Zoo here as ‘Balasaheb Thackeray Gorewada International Zoological Park’.

    Nagpur’s former mayor and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes’ member Maya Iwnate, Gadchiroli BJP MLA Deorao Holi, former state tribal development minister Ashok Uike and other tribal leaders staged a dharna at the statue of Gond (a tribal community) king Bakht Buland Shah in Civil Lines are here.

    They demanded that the zoological park be named as ‘GondwanaGorewada International Zoological Park’.

    Iwnate claimed that former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had earlier assured that the zoological park, after its completion, would be named as the ‘Gondwana Gorewada International Zoological Park’.

    “Had Balasaheb Thackeray been alive, he would have supported the zoo to be named asGondwana, as a respect to the tribal community.

    We request Chief Minister Udhhav Thackeray to consider naming it as ‘Gondwana Gorewada International Zoological Park’,” she said.

    The protesters warned of intensifying their agitation over the issue in future.

    The Vidarbha Rajya Andolan Samiti also staged a demonstration on Katol road here over the issue.

    Its member Ram Neole said they do not want the zoo to be named after a person “who always opposed statehood for Vidarbha”.

  • Name Metro 7 line in Mumbai after Bal Thackeray: Sena leader

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Andheri East to Dahisar East Metro 7 line in Mumbai should be named after late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, party leader Ravindra Waikar said on Friday.

    In a statement, Waikar, MLA from Jogeshwari in the metropolis, said he had submitted a proposal in this regard to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

    The line should be named ‘Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Mumbai Metro Line Number 7’, Waikar said, adding that the late Sena patriarch’s contribution in the political, social and religious spheres was valuable and he was someone who was respected by people from all walks of life.