MUMBAI/ CHANDIGARH : On a day when Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was burnt in effigy along with Kumbhkaran and Meghnad as part of Dusserrah celebrations, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged him to act in such a strong way that the neighbouring country “would become just a part of Hindustan’’ even as he alleged double standards in the BJP’s anti-Pakistan rhetoric.
“I congratulate our Armymen and Prime Minister Modi. We have taught a good lesson (to Pakistan) by carrying out surgical strikes. Now I appeal him to act in such a strong way that Pakistan would become just a part of Hindustan,’’ Thackeray said.
Thackeray also described Modi and the Centre as the last hope for the nation. “I shall praise them for all their good things. I’m not so mean to criticise them only because the Shiv Sena’s relations with the BJP have gone sour,” he said.
Taking a strong objection to Rahul Gandhi’s “Khoon Ki Dalali” remarks, he said, “He must have learnt that word from the Boforce episode.”However, the Sena leader also punctured the BJP’s anti-Pak rhetoric by recalling how the state government protected Pakistani diplomats and artists, “as if the Shiv Sainiks’’ who objected to their programmes in Mumbai “were terrorists”.
Stating that he was hopeful of keeping the ties intact in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation polls, scheduled for early next year, Thackeray said, “We would like to team up with them but only on our terms. We shall not sacrifice our self esteem.”
Earlier in the evening, there was a clash between BJP and Sena workers in Mulund, when the latter disrupted a BJP programme where its MP Kirit Somaiya announced that he would burn in effigy the corruption in the Sena-run corporation isntead of Ravana.
And in Ludhiana, SAD workers on Monday night allegedly beat up Congress men guarding their white Ravana effigies, which were prepared in a protest against the sale of heroin. The Congress was planning to burn them along with photos of Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and his deputy, Sukhbir Singh Badal.
In Amritsar, an effigy of Sharif wrapped in a Pakistani flag was set ablaze while the Azaad Dussehra Committee burnt a 30-feet effigy of the Pakistan PM in Ludhiana. Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed was also burnt in effigy.
Meanwhile at Indore in Madhya Pradesh, a large number of people worshipped ‘Dashanan’ as a part of their 46-year-long tradition. Mahesh Gauhar, president of a local outfit of Ravana followers said Ravana was a great intellectual and an ardent Shiva devotee. He appealed to the people to stop burning Ravana effigies on Dusshera.