News Analysis India

Tag: Shiv Sena

  • Shiv Sena urges Centre to recall Maharashtra Governor

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena, which is in power in Maharashtra, on Saturday accused state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari of toeing the BJP’s line, and said that if the Centre wants the Constitution to be upheld, it should recall him.

    The party also asserted that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) dispensation is stable and strong, and added that the Centre cannot use the governor’s shoulders to take aim at the state government.

    “Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari is back in news again. He has been in politics for the last many years. He was a Union minister and also the chief minister of Uttarakhand.

    “However, ever since he became the Maharashtra governor, he has always remained in news or landed in controversy,” the Sena said in an editorial in mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

    “Why he is always landing in controversy is a question. Recently, he is in news over the use of a state government’s plane. The governor wanted to go to Dehradun using the state aircraft. But the government denied permission to it.

    “He sat in the aircraft on Thursday morning, but as the plane did not have approval to fly, he had to disembark and take a commercial flight to Dehradun,” it said.

    The opposition BJP is creating an issue out of it.

    But why did the governor sit in the plane even as the government had not given its approval for it to fly, the party asked.

    It was a private tour of the governor and as per the law, not only the governor, but even the chief minister cannot use a state plane for such purposes.

    The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) has acted in accordance with law, it said.

    “But Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis accused the state government of being egoistic. The country knows who is indulging in politics of ego. Despite the death of over 200 farmers during the ongoing protest on Delhi borders over the three farm laws, the government is not ready to withdraw them. Isn’t that ego?” the Uddhav Thackeray-led party asked.

    A governor should pursue the agenda of the government of the day and not that of the opposition, it added.

    The Sena also criticised the delay in governor’s approval of 12 names recommended by the state cabinet for their nomination to the Legislative Council from his quota.

    “The governor is acting like a puppet,” it alleged.

    The governor of Maharashtra is an honourable person.

    But it is also his own responsibility to keep the prestige of the position that he occupies.

    However, he is being forced to dance to the BJP’s tunes, it said.

    “If the Union Home Ministry wants the Constitution, laws and norms to be upheld, it should recall the governor,” it said.

  • Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut takes dig at PM Narendra Modi, says ‘we all are andolan jeevi’

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the latters use of the term “andolan jeevi”, or those who survive on protests, during his address in the Rajya Sabha and sought to associate himself with the expression.

    The Rajya Sabha MP shared a photograph of him and farmers leader Rakesh Tikait on Twitter and said in Hindi on the micro-blogging site, Say with pride…we are all andolan jeevi…jai jawan, jai kisaan.

    The photograph was taken when Raut met Tikait at the Ghazipur protest site outside Delhi on February 2 to express solidarity with farmers agitating against the Centre’s new agri-marketing laws.

    Earlier in the day, Modi hit out at those behind the protests, saying a new crop of agitators has emerged in India who cannot live without agitation and the country should be beware of them.

    “There is a new crop of ‘andolan jeevi’. They live for protests. They look for ways to start a new movement.

    “The country needs to be aware of these andolan jeevi,” the PM said in the Upper House of Parliament while replying to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address.

  • Sanjay Raut responds to Amit Shah’s accusation, says ‘closed room’ benefited BJP as well

    By ANI
    MUMBAI: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday responded to Union Minister Amit Shah’s attack on Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray about promises made in a ‘closed room’, saying that the same closed room has benefited the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well.

    “In the same ‘closed room’ that Amit Shah is talking about, Balasaheb ji gave his blessings to the BJP and many senior leaders for Hindutva… PM Modi and Amit Shah have benefitted. Everyone knows this,” Raut told ANI.

    “Why should we (Shiv Sena) lie about anything? For power? Shiv Sena was not born for power,” he said, adding that for them, it was a temple, not a ‘closed room’.

    This comes a day after Amit Shah’s address in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district, where he had said, “Some people here say that we made promises in a closed room. It’s not true. Let’s assume the promise was made. All the candidates of Shiv Sena campaigned with 2.5 times bigger image of Modi Ji on banners and you asked for votes in his name.”

    Raut further said the Home Minister should listen to Devendra Fadnavis’ previous statements, where he made similar remarks in a press meet.

    “If we’re talking about ‘closed rooms’, the Home Minister should listen to the press conference that Devendra Fadnavis addressed in Hotel Blue Sea once again. He clearly said that in talks that took place in a ‘closed room’, Amit Shah and Uddhav ji were there. After that, it was decided that power-sharing and seat-sharing would be 50-50,” Raut added.

    The Thackeray-led Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP after the Assembly polls in 2019 over the issue of sharing the chief ministerial post in the state, and later forged an alliance with the NCP and Congress to come to power. 

  • Maha Vikas Aghadi government is like three-wheeler pulling in different directions: Amit Shah​

    By PTI
    KANKAVLI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra comprising Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress is like an auto-rickshaw whose three wheels were pulling in different directions.

    The senior BJP leader also said that ahead of the 2019 Assembly elections, his party did not promise Shiv Sena – then its alliance partner – to share the chief minister’s post.

    “I don’t make promises in closed rooms. Whatever I do, I do it openly. I don’t do politics in closed rooms,” Shah said.

    Speaking after inaugurating a private medical college at Kankavli in Sindhudurg district, Shah said, “This (MVA) is an unholy alliance and an outcome of betraying the people’s mandate which was for a BJP-Shiv Sena government led by (BJP’s) Devendra Fadnavis.”

    The MVA alliance is a result of the lust for power, Shah said.

    The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP after the 2019 Assembly polls in over the issue of sharing the chief ministerial post with the BJP, and later forged an alliance with the NCP and Congress to come to power.

    Thackeray had claimed that Shah, who was then BJP president, had assured at his ‘Matoshree’ bungalow in Mumbai that the CM’s post would be shared by the two parties, and the BJP reneged on the promise.

    It is being claimed that the BJP broke the promise, Shah said, adding his party honours the promises it makes.

    “We don’t speak white lies. We are the ones who honour commitments. In Bihar, we had said that even if the BJP gets more seats, Nitish Kumar will continue to be the CM,” Shah said.

    Slamming Thackeray, Shah said the Shiv Sena leader addressed poll rallies with him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the Maharashtra Assembly elections.

    In the poll posters of Shiv Sena candidates, Modi’s pictures were bigger than Thackeray’s, Shah said.

    “We sought votes for the BJP-Sena alliance led by Fadnavis. Why didn’t you speak out then? You just garnered votes in Modi’s name,” he added.

  • Opposition parties in Rajya Sabha demand repeal of farm laws

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Various opposition parties like the Shiv Sena, SAD, NCP, Samajwadi Party and Left parties on Friday demanded in Rajya Sabha that the three new farm laws be repealed and fresh ones brought after wider consultations.

    Participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address, the members of opposition parties attacked the government for dubbing the farmers protesting against the farm laws as “anti-nationals” and for “defaming” their agitation.

    Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut alleged that anyone speaking the truth is dubbed as a “traitor” or “anti-national” and that cases of sedition have been slapped against those criticising the government.

    Participating in the debate, he said farmers fighting for their rights have been branded as anti-nationals or Khalistanis.

    He said the farmers, who were known as ‘warriors’ when they fought the Mughals and the British, are now dubbed as anti-nationals when they are fighting for their rights on Delhi’s borders.

    Raut said farmers from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, who are sitting on the borders of Delhi, are fighting for the peasants from across the country and demanded that their voice be heard and the farm laws be repealed.

    “We heard minister Dharmendra Pradhan asking us to listen to the truth. For the last six years, we have been listening to the truth, even the untruth dubbed as truth.

    The atmosphere in the country today is such that anyone writing the truth is dubbed as traitor and anti-national,” he alleged.

    “When the farmers are uniting and fighting for their rights, you see anti-national acts.

    They are not anti-nationals or ‘khalistanis’ “Till the time this movement is alive, the nation will remain alive and this ‘andolan’,” he said.

    “If you would have built such barricades at the international borders, as those put up at Delhi borders, China would not have dared to come into Indian territory,” the Sena member said.

    Praful Patel (NCP) said the Centre and states have together fought the COVID-19 pandemic along with medical professionals and the mortality rate in the country was low as compared to other countries.

    He said when the government is talking of working for the welfare of farmers, why did it not send the farm laws to the Select Committee for wider consultations to avoid the situation that has arisen now.

    “On our demand, had the government sent the bills to a Select Committee for wider consultations, the scenes witnessed today around Delhi would not have been witnessed.

    What was the hurry to bring these laws,” he asked.

    Patel sought to clarify that former Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s letter of 2007 is being circulated to misrepresent the facts.

    “The 2007 letter he wrote to chief ministers was to seek their comments on the amendment to farm laws.

    The Bill was never brought in Parliament. The government, however, is unnecessarily raising the issue to misrepresent facts,” he said.

    The NCP leader said if the government is ready to put these laws in abeyance for 1.5 years, why does it not repeal them and bring new ones after proper consultations.

    BSP member Satish Chandra Misra demanded that the government should repeal the three new farm laws and also provide legal guarantee of the minimum support price (MSP) on all crops, alleging that the government’s intention are not clear.

    Misra slammed the government for trying to stop farmers’ protest and alleged that multi-layered barricades, barbed wires and iron nails studded on roads have been put up on Delhi-borders.

    He said water and electricity supplies have been cut and access to toilets have also been stopped.

    “This is a human rights violation.”

    “I am not able to understand when you (the government) are ready to suspend the laws for 1.5 years, what is stopping you to withdraw these Acts,” he said, urging the government to shed its ego and accept the farmers’ demand.

    SAD leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said the prime minister should intervene and listen to the farmers’ demands.

    The Akali Dal member said the government should accept the farmers’ demand to repeal the three laws.

    He said all Opposition parties are also demanding the same.

    Dhindsa said he had written to the prime minister when Ordinances were brought but did not get any reply.

    He said agriculture is a state-subject and the Centre is weakening the federal system by bringing these farm laws.

    Highlighting the sacrifice made by Sikhs during the country’s Independence struggle, Dhindsa rued that Sikhs are being described as terrorists and Khalistanis.

    Dhindsa also said there should be a scientific method to fix the MSP.

    Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa demanded setting up a committee headed by a Supreme Court judge to conduct an impartial probe within two months into the incidents on January 26 that led to violence.

    He compared the barricades set up at the farmers’ protest site at Ghazipur with the Berlin Wall and concentration camps, and took a strong objection to farmers being branded as anti-national and Khalistanis.

    IUML member Abdul Wahab demanded restoration of MPLADs fund.

    Earlier, CPI member Binoy Viswam hit out at the government for terming the economic crisis as an act of God, and said the policies of the government are squarely responsible for the situation and not the almighty.

  • Shiv Sena sets ‘Mission 150’ target for upcoming BMC elections

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena has made it their ‘mission’ to bag at least 150 out of the total 227 seats in the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.

    According to sources, the Sena leadership has decided to strengthen its local base by undertaking various development works.

    “We have been ruling BMC for the last several years. The BMC is our forte. Therefore, we ahead of the elections decided to start reaching our party workers. If we are strong then we will definitely defeat the opponent in the electoral battle,” said senior Shiv Sena leader Ravindra Waikar.

    Waikar said that currently, the party has not decided on the alliance with NCP and Congress.“In the BMC’s budget, several development projects are undertaken and ample fund has been provided. Sena believes in its hard and groundwork and that is the strength of our party,” Waikar added.

    While Yuva Sena leader Varun Sardesai said that the youth wing of Sena is bringing more young blood in party carder. “Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray personally called several meeting of our Shakha and Vibhag Pramukh recently and attended their all issues. We have a solid base since the inception of Sena in Mumbai. We need to encourage them to take more and more public-oriented activities,” Sardesai said.

    He further said that environment and tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray is also actively attending the BMC corporators. “We are in power in BMC and state government. The state government can help to resolve several major issues of any local wards. Aaditya has been asking them to come forward and share their issues. He is speedily approving the project and ensuring that all projects get enough fund and gets completed on schedule as well,” Sardesai added.

  • Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut to meet protesting farmers at Ghazipur border

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday said he will visit farmers who are protesting at the Ghazipur border near Delhi, as per the instruction of Maharashtra Chief Minister and party head Uddhav Thackeray.

    The Shiv Sena has been supporting the farmers who are agitating at Delhi’s border points for over two months against the Centre’s three new farm laws.

    “The Maha Vikas Aghadi government took decisions in the interest of farmers. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray stood with farmers when they were in pain. Will visit the farmers protesting at Ghazipur border on his instruction,” Raut tweeted, adding he will reach there at 1 pm.

    Farmers’ protest sites at Delhi’s borders turned into fortresses Monday as police beefed up security and strengthened barricades.

    Workers under the watch of police personnel hooked iron rods between two rows of cement barriers on a flank of the main highway at the Singhu border to further restrict the movement of protesters.

    Another portion of the highway at the Delhi-Haryana border is practically blocked now as a makeshift cement wall has come up there.

    At Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, there are multi-layer barricades to stop the movement of vehicles.

    Barbed wire has also been put up to keep off people on foot.

    Protesters have been pouring in as the Bharatiya Kisan Union members and its leader Rakesh Tikait have stayed pitched at Ghazipur’s UP Gate, occupying a stretch of the Delhi-Meerut highway since November last year.

  • Farmers beaten up, journalists jailed: Shiv Sena slams Centre for imposing ‘BJP’s democrazy’

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Sunday attacked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and said that “farmers beaten up, journalists jailed, protests discredited” is ‘BJP’s democrazy’.

    “Farmers being beaten up, honest journalists being jailed, genuine protests being discredited, arrogance of those in positions of power at its peak. This isn’t democracy but BJP’s democrazy,” tweeted Chaturvedi on Sunday.

    Earlier the Shiv Sena leader had slammed the Centre for failing to resolve the farmers’ issue and accused the Central government of not taking adequate measures to prevent the January 26 violence during the Kisan tractor rally.

    “This is the failure of the government to have not resolved the issue sooner, allowed it to fester for months and despite having constant inputs from various agencies about how things could go out of control not been prepared with adequate measures to stop this” the Rajya Sabha MP had tweeted on January 26 reacting to the Republic Day violence.

    On January 26, during the tractor rally, a group of farmers deviated from the assigned route, broke through barriers, clashed with security personnel in several parts of Delhi. They also vandalised property and even entered the Red Fort, where they hoisted their flags.

    Over 25 FIRs have been registered in connection with the January 26 violence under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and sections of IPC dealing with sedition.

    Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the national capital since November 26 last year against the three newly enacted farm laws – Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

  • Centre provoked farmers for violence to discredit anti-farm laws movement, says Shiv Sena

    By ANI
    MUMBAI: In order to discredit the sustained farmers’ movement against the farm laws, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government provoked the farmers to commit violence, the Shiv Sena alleged on Thursday.

    This comes two days after agitating farmers broke barricades to enter Delhi and indulged in vandalism across several parts of the national capital during their Kisan tractor rally organised to protest against the Centre’s three new farm laws on January 26.

    Through its mouthpiece, Saamana, the Shiv Sena said “no one will support what happened in the national capital on Republic Day.”

    Thousands of farmers have been agitating on the Singhu border for the last 60 days. Farmer leaders were saying that on January 26, they would conduct a ‘tractor parade’ in peace. But by breaking the barricades under siege by the police, the agitating farmers on their tractors entered the Delhi border and reached the Red Fort directly. The Republic Day ‘parade’ took place at Delhi’s Rajpath in the morning and the whole country was shaken by the farmers’ parade in the afternoon. There was a sudden panic in Delhi. Law and order condition was broken. Everyone is hurt by such an incident on Republic Day, it said.

    Sena attacked BJP for the violence that broke out in various parts of Delhi during a tractor rally on January 26.

    “Now, BJP has heavily come down on the agitating farmers. The programme to enter Delhi was a pre-planned program and the farmers’ movement has gone into the hands of the terrorists, according to BJP’s intelligence system. The crowd who stirred in the Red Fort was led by a young man named Deep Sidhu. It has been revealed that this Sidhu belongs to the camp of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah. BJP’s Punjab MP Sunny Deol has a close relationship with Sidhu. Farmer leaders like Rajesh Tikait say that Sidhu had been talking about revolt and separatism for the last two months by entering the crowd of farmers,” it said.

    ASO READ: Tractor parade violence and the curious case of Deep Sidhu

    “For the last 60 days, the farmers’ movement has been going on in a peaceful manner, demanding the repeal of three agricultural laws that are opposed in the interests of the country’s farmers. Despite this, there was no split in the farmer movement and the patience of the farmers was not broken. For this reason, the Central Government had to sit with folded hands. It was also said that the farmers’ movement is Khalistani. But still, the farmers remained calm,” the party added.

    According to Shiv Sena, it was the “desire of the government to discredit the movement by provoking the farmers to commit violence. If it had fulfilled its desire on January 26, then it has brought the country into disrepute.”

    “It is not right to put the responsibility of violence on farmers only. The government has done what it wanted. Its victims are farmers, policemen and young men who shed their blood,” it added.

    Sena said that if Punjab becomes turbulent again, then “it will not be good for the country.”

    “The farmers involved in the movement are from Punjab and they do not have the support of the whole country, this claim of the government is wrong. The whole country stands with Punjab,” it said.

    Commenting upon the vandalism and unfurling of the flag in Red Fort ramparts, Shiv Sena said, “The tricolour is flying over the Red Fort. BJP-backed media started shouting that agitating farmers insulted the tricolour. But the veil of lies was torn. Sidhu, who was leading the agitators on the Red Fort, has a relationship with the BJP. No one put a hand on the tricolour. A religious flag was hoisted on the second dome of the Red Fort, no one is ready to show this truth. Those who attacked the police should be apprehended and prosecuted. The government should deal strictly with those taking up the law.”

    The party stated that the three agricultural laws are not the present and future of the country.

    “Somebody has an interest in it. That is why the oppression of farmers is going on. It is not in the national interest,” it alleged.

    Nineteen people have so far been arrested and over 25 criminal cases registered by Delhi Police in connection with the violence that broke out during the farmers’ tractor march on Tuesday, Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava said on Wednesday.

    Farmers broke barricades to enter Delhi and indulged in vandalism across several parts of the national capital during their Kisan tractor rally organised to protest against the Centre’s three new farm laws. Several public and private properties were damaged in acts of vandalism by the rioting mob.

    Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the national capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws – Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

  • 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”.