If you do dadagiri, Balasaheb has taught us how to break it: Uddhav

TIL Desk/National/Mumbai/ Breaking his silence on the Hanuman Chalisa row that has seen a lawmaker couple being booked for sedition and the Bharatiya Janata Party raising the Hindutva pitch, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said reciting the Hanuman Chalisa at his home is not a problem but ‘dadgiri’ won’t be tolerated.

Thackeray, who heads Shiv Sena, launched a caustic attack on the BJP without taking its name and claimed that those teaching him Hindutva were hiding in a “rat hole” when the Babri Masjid was demolished. “If you want to recite Hanuman Chalisa at my home, do come. But approach with a proper method,” Thackeray said.

“But if you want to visit by ‘dadagiri’ (bullying), Balasaheb (the late Shiv Sena founder and his father) had taught us how to break that ‘dadagiri’,” he said at the launch of the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) at the BEST headquarters in Mumbai.Thackeray said Shiv Sena’s Hindutva is “Gadadhari”, a reference to Lord Hanuman who carries a mace, while the Hindutva of the opponents is “Ghantadhari” (bell-ringing).