Uddhav accuses BJP of indulging in 'power jihad'; hits out at Shah
Pune (PTI): Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday launched a broadside against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing the former ally of indulging in "power jihad" by breaking political parties to form a government.
Hitting back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his "Aurangzeb Fan Club' barb aimed at him, he dubbed the top BJP leader a political descendant of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Afghan king who defeated the Marathas in the third battle of Panipat.
Addressing party workers at the Shiv Sankalp rally here, he also accused the Eknath Shinde-led dispensation of bribing voters by giving "revdis" (freebies) to them in the form of schemes like the Mukhyamantri Ladki Bahin Yojana, under which eligible women in the state will get Rs 1,500 every month.
Accusing the former ally of breaking parties, he said, "If Muslims are with us after we explained to them our Hindutva, then we are (according to the BJP) the Aurangzeb Fan Club. Then what you are doing is power jihad."
During an event in Pune last month, Shah had attacked Thackeray and dubbed him "the head of the Aurangzeb fan club" who was "sitting with people who sought pardon for 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon".
Referring to his remarks, Thackeray, who had challenged his friend-turned-adversary and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that "either you will be there or I will (in politics)", said he was not referring to any person.
"Some people thought I challenged someone, but I don't challenge bed bugs. Here, 'I' means my cultured Maharashtra and 'you' means the party which loots Maharashtra," the former chief minister said.
Bed bugs are not supposed to be challenged, but crushed, he said.
Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over photos of leakage in the new Parliament building, Thackeray said the new complex has started leaking in just 14 months.
The PM asks what the Congress did in 60-70 years, but Modi should give an account on why the new Parliament building, which was built barely a year ago, started leaking, he said.
"This government (at the Centre) is a leakage government. There are paper leaks also," he said.
Thackeray also accused the BJP of engineering division among castes.
"This is not the Hindutva taught to us by Chhatrapati Shivaji. This (the one practised by the BJP) must have been taught by Aurangzeb which we do not believe in. Our Hindutva is the one that takes forward the Maharashtra dharma of Chhatrapati Shivaji," he said.
Taking a dig at the delay in getting judgement on disqualification of MLAs who rebelled against him, Thackeray said, "We have faith in the judiciary. The result will be given in 5-50 years. The term of (the legislative assembly) is getting over. Even if they (the rebel MLAs) are disqualified, they can contest polls."
Thackeray added that democracy was getting murdered in broad daylight and stressed that justice will be delivered in the court of the people.
Talking about the pothole-riddled roads during the monsoon, he hit out at Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.
"Potholes are everywhere, including in Mumbai, Pune and other cities. Gadkari once said he will build such roads that even after 200 years there will be no single pothole on it. But looking at the condition of roads, Gadkari should be given the 'Khadde Purush" (man of potholes) award. The Mumbai-Goa Highway is still under construction," Thackeray added.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
