Shiv Sena attacks BJP but rules out break-up

Uddhav Thackeray said we won't leave Marathi manoos and Hindutva at any cost

Breaking silence over his party's strained ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday attacked the coalition partner on issues such as ties with Pakistan, consumption of beef, and inflation. He, however, ruled out walking out of the Maharashtra government anytime soon.

He said the Dadri lynching, not the Sena's campaign against cultural or sporting ties with Pakistan, had brought shame to the country. "If you can get along with (Jammu & Kashmir chief minister) Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, you should also listen to Shiv Sena," Thackeray said, addressing the Sena's traditional Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park in Dadar here.

On speculation about the Sena parting ways with the BJP, he said, "We know for how long to remain in power. Allow us to work, now that we are in power." Ridiculing the BJP on the Ayodhya issue, he said, "We have been hearing ' mandir wahin banayenge ... lekin tareekh nahi batayenge (a temple will be built, but won't disclose when)".

"If the Hindu will be finished, will this country survive? Declare this country a Hindu rashtra and implement a common civil code, instead of searching people's homes for beef," he said in a reference to the lynching of a 50-year-old man in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh over rumours he had stored and consumed beef.

"We won't leave Marathi manoos and Hindutva at any cost," he said.

The country's image was maligned because of Dadri, not because of the ink attack on Kulkarni, Thackeray said, referring to the Sena's protest against the launch of a book by former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri in Mumbai. "If you have the courage, enter Pakistan.

"Why speak on the cow (beef)? Instead, speak on inflation…Why is it not possible to control the prices of essential commodities? A government that can't stop price rise is useless…If governments can fall on the issue of onion prices, one can't say what will happen over rising inflation," he cautioned.

Thackeray added the killers of rationalists Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar should be hanged if found guilty. "But, first prove the charges against them."

On Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar's statement that the Sena of yore didn't exist, he said, "Pawar, who appeased (Congress chief) Sonia Gandhi for 15 years, should not teach us self-respect."