Headlines
Uddhav Thackeray admits to 'no communication' with Amit Shah
Mumbai, July 25
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav
Thackeray has admitted that there is barely any communication between
him and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah.
"No, there is
no dialogue between us," Thackeray said tersely in the third and
concluding instalment of his three-part marathon annual interview ahead
of his birthday on July 27, published in the party mouthpiece Saamana,
on Saturday.
Shiv Sena is the second biggest ally of the BJP in
the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The two parties ruled
Maharashtra from 1995-1999 and have had a political alliance for the
last 25 years, barring a three-month 'break' in late 2014.
The
Sena chief said he remains at home, but does meet Shah when he visits
New Delhi -- hinting at the past when all top BJP leaders including
former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and the late Pramod
Mahajan were regulars at the Thackeray home 'Matoshree' in Bandra.
"Last
time, he had phoned me and I had gone for his son's wedding," he said,
apparently clarifying that his personal relations with Shah remain
cordial and there was no complete breakdown.
In this context, he
declined to reply to the interviewer, Saamana executive editor Sanjay
Raut's query whether the Sena was taken into confidence before forming
the alliance government in Maharashtra -- "The curtains have been drawn
on that episode... I don't want to rake it up again."
Thackeray,
however, said that in the BJP he enjoys an excellent rapport with Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis, describing him as "the top party leader in
the state after all".
On the perceived grouse of the Sena
ministers in the state cabinet at being doled out 'insignificant'
portfolios, Thackeray said "every department/ministry is important, it
all depends on the person handling it".
He castigated Nationalist
Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar for his remarks that if the Sena had
any dignity it would walk out of the state alliance.
"They want
the government to collapse soon, so then (they) can join it... I am not
going to dislodge the government for them," Thackeray asserted.
He
also made it clear that the legendary 'remote control' once wielded on
the state government by his father, the late Bal Thackeray, during the
Shiv Sena-BJP government from 1995-1999, was now in the hands of the
people of the state.
"I am not so great to wield that remote
control... That remote control is now handled by the people... I am
happy if some people feel it's in my hands, but it will be utilised only
for the benefit of the state. Till it continues to work for the masses,
the state government need not fear the remote control," Thackeray
assured.
In the final part of the interview, Thackeray touched
upon the issue of vegetarianism versus non-vegetarianism in the state,
the Bangladeshi migrants who have developed deep roots here and warned
against any move by the BJP to shift trade and commerce out of Mumbai.
He
also flayed Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel's invitation to the
Mumbai corporates to shift to her state as there is 'nothing' left in
Maharashtra, expressed displeasure over the delay in constructing a
monument to his father (the late Bal Thackeray) and other issues.