'Fed up with arrogance of Modi-Shah, India is awakening': Uddhav Thackeray

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said that fed up with 12 years of bad governance and the arrogant reign of PM Narendra Modi and union home minister Amit Shah, the country was awakening, as evidenced by the anger in Gen Z and other citizens. He declared that this would result in the duo's ouster, and that his party and Maharashtra would "shine in this battle of regime change".

The Sena (UBT) chief was speaking at the party's Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park. Hitting out at the BJP for "running campaigns to confuse people", he said his party's biggest mistake was forging an alliance with it in 1989. "We lost 25 years in alliance with these people," he said. "They used the Hindutva promoted by Bal Thackeray and later dumped our party."

Thackeray also criticised the BJP for "stealing votes and attacking constitutional institutions" and dubbing all those who expressed anger against them as cockroaches and Urban Naxals. "The Gen Z kids protesting against the BJP regime and taking out a flag march are not terrorists or Naxals but revolutionaries," he said. "The young revolutionaries who fought against British rule were also the age of the Gen Z protestors as were Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his colleagues." Thackeray also slammed the SIR process for deleting around 130 million names from the voter list and questioned sarcastically if all those 130 million were Bangladeshi.

The Sena (UBT) chief hit out at the police for their brutal handling of students and protestors, and slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for presuming to preach to Gen Z. "I have no fight with the RSS but want to ask if its anger and opposition to the Indian tricolour still continues," he said. "The police brutally handled young protestors and misbehaved with girls, but Bhagwat is teaching decorum and civilised manners to Gen Z." The Sena (UBT) chief warned that if the police continued misbehaving with protestors and Gen Z, it would "cost them in future".

Citing the incident of firing at actor Tiger Shroff and deputy CM Eknath Shinde's visit to the Shroff residence, Thackeray asked the government how the attackers reached the spot with weapons. "Why did the police fail to stop them?" he demanded. "Bishnoi is in a Gujarat jail with the blessings of union home minister Amit Shah. If CM Fadnavis has the guts, bring him to Maharashtra for justice. But Fadnavis is busy defaming Maharashtra by presenting an affidavit in court that Maharashtra is full of Urban Naxals."

Speaking on the drought, Thackeray pointed out that the state government had still to give farmers two instalments of the Namo Kisan scheme, and mocked its announcement of ₹5,000 to each farmer. "To come to power, the ruling party bought MLAs for ₹50 crore each but is paying only ₹5,000 to drought-affected farmers," he said.

The BJP's chief spokesperson Navnath Ban strongly criticised Thackeray for his statements on a regime change. "Before talking about a change of power, Uddhav Thackeray should focus on saving his own party and keeping his MLAs together," he said. "Do not dream of capturing power under the pretext of voter lists. The people of Maharashtra will decide the state's political future."