The January 22 consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is a “BJP event that has nothing to do with Indians”, Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena UBT MP and executive editor of the party’s mouthpiece Saamana, told News18 in an exclusive interview.
“This is nothing but BJP’s election drama. The entire India had contributed to the cause of Ram Mandir. Many political parties and their leaders had gone to Ayodhya. Many lost their lives, while several went to jail. But today, the situation is different as now only the BJP will be gathering in Ayodhya,” Raut said.
“I don’t see the political advantage of the Ram Mandir issue. By doing all this, will the Manipur issue get resolved? Can Modi-ji do that? Will Kashmiri Pandits get their houses back? Will this help curb inflation and poverty?” Raut asked as he confirmed that he would soon visit the temple with party chief Uddhav Thackeray.
Last week, the Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena suffered a setback from the Maharashtra state assembly Speaker who was pronouncing the verdict in a disqualification petition filed by both camps.
Though he rejected the petitions of both factions, he pronounced Eknath Shinde’s faction as the real Shiv Sena. Recently, the party took the issue directly to the public, calling it ‘People’s Court’.
Asked about the move, Raut said: “The verdict that was given was a political decision. It was not as per the Constitution. The decision of the Speaker was not as per law. We always say ‘Satyamev Jayate’, but where is ‘Satya’ (truth) in this order? This order was given to him by his bosses. Some say the order came from Delhi, some say it came from London. The tribunal just read the order. How can we call it justice?”
Questioning the decision of the tribunal, Raut asked: “When did he join the Shiv Sena party? There was a split in the party and they made one group. What documents, ideology, and Constitution do they have? All of them contested on the Shiv Sena ticket and Uddhav Thackeray gave them AB form. We all had gone for Shinde’s campaigning and, with our recommendation, he was elevated to the post of ‘party leader’ in the national executive.
“Being a political party, we had appointed him as Whip in Vidhan Sabha. But he broke our party by joining hands with the BJP, then how can he lay claim to the party?”
Explaining the technical aspect of the disqualification petition, Raut said: “Shinde has a majority in the state assembly as, on record, there are 40 MLAs with him. But when we filed the petition, only 16 MLAs went to Surat with him, then how can they claim they have 2/3rd majority? After Surat, a few other MLAs joined them in Guwahati and from there they went to Goa. If you see the constitution of our party, it has given all rights to Uddhav Thackeray. We have also submitted all documents of the 2013 and 2018 resolutions passed in our national executive. We have all the records that we showed to the entire country in ‘People’s Court’ held in Mumbai on Tuesday.”
As per Raut, BJP, Election Commission and Speaker Rahul Narwekar are ‘hand in glove’ in this case. “The Speaker should remain unbiased but he is a member of BJP. ECI, Speaker and BJP are hand in glove in this issue. Our records show that EC has all documents related to the Shiv Sena party. But Narwekar says that EC didn’t give me any documents. So what should we do? He could have asked us for the same documents, but he didn’t ask.
“He wrote a letter to the EC but it seems EC misguided him to help the groups which were split from us. EC wanted to save this government so they helped other factions. Balasaheb Thackeray made this party 60 years back. What connection does Shinde have with this party? Shinde was made a member of the national executive in 2018 and now he has control over the party. We brought all the videos and documents and showed them to the people of India just to expose the drama in the country.”
Challenging Shinde and BJP to dissolve the government and face elections, the Thackeray aide said: “If justice still prevails, then we will get it from the court. But we have also approached the People’s Court. We have said this many times that let people decide whom they stand with. Let this government dissolve the assembly and call for an election. Then people will show them which Shiv Sena is real. These people in power don’t have the guts to stand in corporation elections.”
Raut, while discussing the issue of seat sharing, reiterated that Shiv Sena is firm on its stand of contesting the 23 seats for the Lok Sabha election.
“All alliance partners have given their proposals regarding seat sharing. We are discussing seat sharing based on merit. Whatever news you are getting or those talking about seat sharing have no right to say anything as they have very little information. We are having a dialogue in Delhi and Mumbai and when I say merit, it means we are seeing which party has the potential to win that seat.
“We have always contested 23 seats and won 18-19. We think that we will repeat the same in 2024. Congress and NCP will also win a good number of seats. If Raju Shetty and Ambedkar join us, we all will contest together.”
Expressing confidence that Dr Ambedkar’s gandson and leader of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, Prakash Ambedkar, will contest the election with INDIA bloc, Raut said: “Prakash Ambedkar is the grandson of Dr BR Ambedkar. He can’t tolerate the way the Constitution is being insulted or the dictatorship that prevails in the country. We are confident that he is with us in this fight.”
There are rumours in the political corridors of Maharashtra that after Shiv Sena and NCP, now Congress leaders may also join BJP before Lok Sabha elections. However, Raut thinks BJP’s current structure has no ideology. “They have taken leaders by breaking the Shiv Sena, the NCP and a few Congress leaders. Why aren’t they speaking on ideology? Who are with them? If Modi-ji has the power to win the election on his own, why are they breaking up different parties? This means BJP and its leadership is weak so they are playing this game.”
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