In maiden Saamana edit, Rashmi Thackeray attacks BJP

Mumbai: The new Editor of Shiv Sena-run publications, the ‘Saamana Group’ Rashmi Thackeray has made it clear to the Bharatiya Janata Party who is ‘the boss’.

In the maiden edit in the group newspapers after she took over as Editor on Sunday, she has slammed the BJP state President Chandrakant Patil, labeling him as “Dadamiyana, conveying that she would adopt a tough, hands-on approach.

“When ‘Dadamiyan’ and many others like him were wetting their beds, the Shiv Sena had taken up the fight for Hindutva and patriotism, and it needs no lessons from them (BJP),” the edit in ‘Saamana’ and ‘Dopahar Ka Saamana’ said.

The sharp commentary was in reference to Patil’s recent assertions that since “nobody is a descendent of Aurangzeb in Maharashtra, it will be appropriate if Aurangabad is renamed as ‘Sambhajinagar’ at the earliest”.

A visibly ruffled Patil immediately shot back by saying: “This language was not expected from (Rashmi) Taia” and BJP former minister Ashish Shelar hit out by saying “you media-pundits are Miya-Darbari!”

Continuing to slam the BJP, the edit said that the state party has lost all relevance in its words and deeds which are an outcome of the failure of Fadnavis, Patil and their team.

“Patil, or BJP’s ‘Dadamiyan’ is now following in Fadnavis’ roadmap and talking sheer nonsense. His recent statements in Aurangabad indicate that not only was it a slip of tongue, but also he has lost his much more,” the edit said.

The edit said that he had no business to say it since Maharashtra has long ago buried the ghosts of Aurangzeb nor is anybody in the state his (Aurangzeb’s) descendent.

“Let ‘Dadamiyan’ not forget that 25 years ago, it was the late Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray who first publicly renamed Aurangabad as ‘Sambhajinagar’, and everybody is proud of it. For the past five years, the BJP has been mouthing names of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj or Veer Savarkar’s name only for politicking and to seek votes,” said the sharp edit.

“Since five years the BJP ruled in the state and even at the centre. Then what prevented you from renaming Aurangabad to ‘Sambhajinagar’, why didn’t you confer Bharat Ratna on Veer Savarkar, you failed to lay one brick of the Shivaji Memorial in Mumbai. But look at Yogi Adityanath, how quickly he renamed Allahabad as ‘Prayagraj’, and renamed other towns and villages in Uttar Pradesh,” said the edit.

Targetting Patil, the ‘Saamana’ wondered “since when ‘Dadamiyan’ has become a great historian to deliver speeches saying all Mughals like Babur, Afzal Khan, Shaista Khan, Aurangzeb, etc, were aggressive rulers”, when Balasaheb Thackeray had sent these ‘ghosts’ to their graves long ago.

The people of Maharashtra are now questioning that the state BJP, like the Mughals, is simply not willing to learn the lessons in the opposition and keeps talking utter nonsense.

“People want peace, and all efforts by ‘Dadamiyan’ to uproot the spirits of the buried Mughals will not shatter that peace. When many ‘Dadamiyans’ like you were still wetting their beds, Shiv Sena had already started its fight for Hindutva and nationalism. ‘Dadamiyan’, keep this in mind!” the edit concluded.

IANS