NCP activists protest outside Shiv Sena MP Rajan Vichare’s house in Thane by breaking their Ramzan fast. — Deepak Kurkunde
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed fans communal sentiment; L.K. Advani says Sena MP action ‘wrong’; Uddhav Thackeray defends MPs.
As Parliament witnessed uproar over Shiv Sena MPs allegedly forcing a fasting Muslim worker to eat in the Maharashtra Sadan, ally BJP — which is yet to resolve some contentious issues including chief ministerial candidate post for the coming Maharashtra elections with it kept quiet even when news channels were showing the visuals of the alleged incident. Both the allies want the top post in Maharashtra for their leader.
The BJP is also asking for more number of Assembly seats to contest this time, something not agreeable to the Shiv Sena.
While Shiv Sena was facing the Opposition’s onslaught over the incident, ally BJP including its Muslim MPs and minority affairs minister Najma Heptullah refused to comment. BJP leaders were asked by the top brass to stay away from the issue to avoid causing any embarrassment to its ally.
However, the incident gave 26/11 Mumbai terror blasts mastermind Hafiz Saeed to try fan communal passion in India as he tweeted that the incident was a “disgrace to humanity and a direct attack on core Islamic values.”
Using the hashtag #ForcedToBreakFast, Saeed tweeted “ incident by Shiv Sena MPs is a disgrace to humanity and a direct attack on core Islamic values....In (Narendra) Modi’s govt, these incidents are not a surprise. This ‘face’ of India resulted in the creation of Pakistan ...incident is an attack on Muslim faith and values; Muslims in India should stand up, organise and unite against subjugation...”
It was only saffron party veteran L.K. Advani who disapproved of the alleged action of Shiv Sena MPs, saying it was “wrong”. Even Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray tried to water down the controversy, saying the intention of his party MPs was not to hurt anybody’s religious sentiments. The Opposition also attacked the BJP led NDA government for its refusal to discuss the issue and its silence on the alleged incident. Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Prakash Javadekar however, said the incident needs to be ascertained as the media reports were “unsubstantiated.”