Mumbai, Jul 19 (PTI) Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday attacked the BJP-led Centre, saying a fight should now be launched to change a government that is not accountable.
Addressing a rally in Mumbai, he accused the government of stealing the future of the youth, referring to alleged irregularities in the NEET exam and student suicides tied to it, which prompted activist Sonam Wangchuk to launch a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in the national capital.
Thackeray also dared the Modi government to implement “One Nation, One Election”.
The criticism of the government by Thackeray, whose party recently saw six of its Lok Sabha MPs switching over to the rival Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, came on the eve of Parliament’s Monsoon session.
“The resignation of (Union Education Minister) Dharmendra Pradhan is a small issue. The fight now should be to change the government which cannot give employment, education and answers (accountability),” he said.
Thackeray asked how Wangchuk, who built solar tents for soldiers working in sub-zero temperatures and created ice stupas to address water woes in Ladakh, can be described as anti-national.
The erstwhile UPA government under then prime minister Manmohan Singh sent a delegation to hold talks with social activist Anna Hazare when he was on an indefinite hunger strike in 2011, Thackeray pointed out.
Why did the Modi government not do so with Wangchuk, the former Maharashtra chief minister asked.
He also slammed the Centre over the way the activist was whisked away by Delhi police on Saturday.
“Are you catching hold of a terrorist? The Modi government may have covered Wangchuk with bed sheets but it can’t hide the truth,” he said.
Wangchuk was taken forcibly to Safdarjung Hospital by police on the 21st day of his hunger strike. He has been on an indefinite hunger strike since June 28 in support of the CJP-led protest over alleged irregularities in the NEET examination and the reported deaths of students linked to the controversy.
“We neither want Dharmendra Pradhan nor this government,” Thackeray said, adding that the fire seen in the youth now must persist till this government is in power.
“This fight is not of Sonam Wangchuk alone. They have stolen the future of the country,” Thackeray said attacking the ruling dispensation.
The former CM claimed there are reports that the government is readying for a war at Jantar Mantar, the site of the Cockroach Janta Party-led protest.
Had the government prepared for NEET exams properly, the government wouldn’t have faced this situation, he said.
Thackeray said he asked RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat if whatever is happening in the country fits in the Hindu Rashtra of his imagination.
In an apparent reference to the BJP, Thackeray said leeches sucking the blood of democracy need to be removed.
Former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray said, “We will not become slaves of the BJP if even if we are cut apart.” He said the BJP got the mandate to change the country but they are changing the Constitution. PTI PR NR BNM
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