Bal Thackeray Saved Modi When Atal Spoke About ‘Rajdharma’:  Uddhav

TIL Desk/National/Mumbai/ Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray has targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi wouldn’t have come this far had Bal Thackeray not ‘saved’ him when the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had asked him to follow ‘rajdharma’. He said Shiv Sena protected a political leadership for 25-30 years but they (the BJP) didn’t want Sena and also the Akali Dal — the erstwhile members of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

“I fell out with BJP but I never abandoned Hindutva. The BJP is not Hindutva. Uttar Bharatiyas want answers on what Hindutva is. Hating each other is not Hindutva,” he told a gathering of north Indians in Mumbai. Thackeray accused the BJP of creating a rift among Hindus. “For 25-30 years, Shiv Sena protected a political friendship. Hindutva meant warmth amongst us. They (BJP) didn’t want anyone. They didn’t want Akali Dal… Shiv Sena,” he said.

“It was Balasaheb Thackeray who saved the current prime minister when Atalji (then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) wanted him to honour rajdharma. But Balasaheb intervened saying it was the need of the hour. “Had that not happened he (Modi) wouldn’t have reached here,” Thackeray said in an apparent reference to Vajpayee’s remarks asking then Gujarat chief minister Modi to follow “rajdharma” after the 2002 communal riots. He said the Shiv Sena founder never nurtured hatred.