Savarkar our idol, won't tolerate his insult: Uddhav tells Rahul
urges him to fight unitedly for democracy
Malegaon (PTI): Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said he considers Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar as his "idol", and asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to refrain from "insulting" him.
He said the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of three parties - Sena (UBT), Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) - was formed to protect democracy and it was necessary to work unitedly for it.
Addressing a rally in the Muslim-dominated textile town of Malegaon in Nashik district of north Maharashtra, Thackeray also said that deliberate attempts were on to provoke Rahul Gandhi.
"Savarkar is our idol and his insult will not be tolerated if we have to fight together to protect our democracy. Savarkar suffered unimaginable torture in the Andaman cellular jail for 14 years. We can only read the sufferings. It is a form of sacrifice," he said.
''I want to tell Rahul Gandhi that we have come together to save our country's democracy and its Constitution. But you are deliberately being provoked. If we allow this time to get wasted, then democracy will cease to exist. 2024 will be the last election," he added.
Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after a court in Gujarat's Surat convicted him in a 2019 defamation case. Addressing a press conference in Delhi over his disqualification, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said, "My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi and Gandhi does not offer an apology to anyone".
Thackeray said he supported Gandhi for his Bharat Jodo Yatra.
"Rahul Gandhi spoke well at his press conference yesterday. He raised valid questions about whom does Rs 20,000 crore belong. But the government doesn't want to answer," he said.
During his press conference on Saturday, Gandhi said the moot questions remain that who invested Rs 20,000 crore in Adani shell firms and what is the businessman's relationship with the prime minister.
Targeting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Thackeray alleged that those who have no connection with the country's freedom movement were attempting to finish off democracy.
Thackeray, who was addressing his second rally here after Khed in Ratnagiri district since losing the party name and symbol to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, said he was fighting to save democracy and freedom.
"The fight is not about me becoming the chief minister again," he said.
Thackeray also said NCP leader Anil Deshmukh's six-year-old granddaughter was questioned by probe agencies and even Lalu Prasad Yadav's pregnant daughter-in-law was quizzed till she fainted.
"If you criticise those in power, police will be after you," he said.
"Modi is not India. Did our freedom fighters lay down their lives for this?" he asked.
The former CM wondered how good and honest people in the BJP were tolerating the corrupt people brought into their fold from other parties.
Hitting out at CM Shinde, Thackeray said he doesn't regret losing the chief minister's post, but a government doing good work was shamelessly toppled.
"Farmers are facing a lot of hardships and the Shinde government is doing nothing to ease their problems," he alleged.
Thackeray said he has been robbed of his party's name and symbol, but traitors can never rob him of the love and affection of the people.
He said his government has taken several steps for the development of the textile sector in Malegaon and farmers and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"During the pandemic, I had spoken to the religious heads in Malegaon and everyone here cooperated with the government initiatives to control the spread of the virus," he said.
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Congress standing with CM Siddaramaiah, will support him, says party President Kharge
Bengaluru (PTI): Congress President M Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said the party is standing with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and will support him as he faces a probe by Lokayukta police in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment case.
Rejecting BJP's demand for Siddaramaiah's resignation, he noted that "neither a chargesheet is filed, nor he is convicted," and said, "let the law take its own course, and when a situation comes, the party will examine."
"When the Godhra incident happened, whether (Narendra) Modi ji had resigned (as the then Gujarat CM)? Several cases were also pending against him at that time, even against Mr Shah (Union Home Minister Amit Shah)," Kharge said in response to a question on BJP questioning CM's moral right to continue, with FIR slated to be registered against him.
Speaking to reporters here, he said: "Don't target a particular person to damage his image, through him the party will also be damaged. Your (BJP) interest is to damage the Congress party, not the individual. He may be here today or may not be, the party will continue. Just to destroy the Congress party and the Congress party's base votes, they want to destroy, that is why they are doing this."
Let the law take its own course, and when a situation comes, the party will examine it at that time, he further said. "Now nothing is there, (but) every day I'm seeing that MUDA, MUDA. Crores of rupees (have been) swallowed by industrialists, Rs 16 lakh crore of their debt have been written off, and now you are taking one small issue and fighting. That too neither chargesheet is filed, nor he is convicted. Every day this is news. I'm fed up seeing all these things."
Asked whether the Congress high command will stand with the Chief Minister, even after the registering of FIR, Kharge said: "that is a hypothetical question. We are standing with him, we will support him, because he represents the party, not (an) individual."
A Special Court here on Wednesday ordered a Lokayukta police probe against Siddaramaiah in the case, setting the stage for filing of an FIR against him.
The order of the Special Court Judge, Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, came a day after the High Court upheld the sanction granted by the Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to conduct an investigation against Siddaramaiah on the allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife B M Parvathi by MUDA.
The Special Court exclusively to deal with criminal cases related to former and elected MPs/MLAs issued the order directing the Lokayukta police in Mysuru to initiate an investigation on the complaint filed by RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna.
In the MUDA site allotment case, it is alleged that compensatory sites were allotted to Siddaramaiah's wife in an upmarket area in Mysuru, which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land which had been "acquired" by MUDA.
The MUDA had allotted plots to Parvathi under a 50:50 ratio scheme in lieu of 3.16 acres of her land, where it developed a residential layout.
Under the controversial scheme, MUDA allotted 50 per cent of developed land to the land losers in lieu of undeveloped land acquired from them for forming residential layouts.
It is alleged that Parvathi had no legal title over this 3.16 acres of land at survey number 464 of Kasare village, Kasaba hobli of Mysuru taluk.
