Mumbai, July 3 (IANS) Hours after Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray announced a statewide ‘Ram Raksha’ agitation over alleged financial irregularities in the Ayodhya Ram Temple donation funds, the rival Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena on Friday hit back, dismissing the upcoming protest as political opportunism and hypocrisy.

Slamming Thackeray’s allegations that stolen temple money was being funnelled to engineer political defections, Shiv Sena Minister and spokesperson Sanjay Shirsat termed the remarks “childish”, advising the UBT chief to use the protest to seek forgiveness for his past political choices.

Taking a sharp dig at Thackeray’s announcement that protesters would gather at Dadar on July 5 to recite the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ and ‘Ram Raksha Stotra’, Minister Shirsat recalled the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) regime’s controversial arrest of lawmaker couple Ravi and Navneet Rana.

“It is completely childish to claim that temple funds are being used to break political parties. When the Rana couple wanted to recite the Hanuman Chalisa in the past, your government had them arrested. Now, suddenly, you want to recite it. At least this political desperation is finally forcing you to read the Hanuman Chalisa. The reality is you only remember Hindus when you need them for your politics,” he countered.

Minister Shirsat categorised Thackeray’s sudden pivot back to aggressive Hindutva as “fake affection”, challenging the UBT faction’s alliance with secular parties like Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). “Look at who is dancing in your political rallies. This is all cosmetic love. You raise slogans for Hindus, yet you sit in the lap of the Congress and the NCP. Go and ask your alliance partners if they even accept your version of Hindutva. Instead of targeting others, Uddhav Thackeray should go to Dadar, recite the Hanuman Chalisa, and beg Lord Hanuman for forgiveness for his own political blunders,” he remarked cuttingly.

Responding to Thackeray’s invocation of the historic Ram Janmabhoomi movement, Minister Shirsat emphasised that the credit belonged solely to the late Balasaheb Thackeray, not his successor. “When L.K. Advani led the Ram Rath Yatra, it received an overwhelming national response. When the dome fell, and others panicked, it was only one ‘tiger’ — Balasaheb Thackeray — who courageously stood up and declared, ‘If those who did this were Shiv Sainiks, I am proud of them.’ Do not try to capitalise on that today. That credit belongs purely to Balasaheb (Thackeray),” he said.

The Shinde-led camp further ridiculed Uddhav Thackeray’s challenge to top BJP leaders, questioning his own commitment to the cause during the agitation’s peak. “We went to Ayodhya during the actual times of struggle. Does Uddhav Thackeray mean to suggest that Lord Ram will not bless someone like Amit Shah until he permits it? Thackeray has absolutely no connection left with Hindus or Hindutva,” Minister Shirsat claimed.

Offering a final piece of advice, the Shinde Sena spokesperson concluded. “Before trying to give a new direction to politics in the name of Lord Ram, Uddhav Thackeray needs to wake up his own party. He needs to wake up himself, and more importantly, clear out the ‘Chandal Chaukadi’ (vile coterie) surrounding him before preaching to the nation.”

–IANS

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