Ahmedabad, 5 May 2014

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aditya Thackeray has again put clarification on his twitter handle over controversial article in Saamna questioning loyalty of Gujaratis to Maharashtra.

Background:

On foundation day of Maharashtra and Gujarat states, Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece Saamna published a strong editorial criticizing Gujaratis for being partial with Maharashtra(Saamna’s dubious man at job Sanjay Raut to blame for this). On Friday Shiv Sena issued clarification. Uddhav Thackeray who is the president of the Shiv Sena and also editor of “Saamna” on last Friday issued a statement saying, “Someone is deliberately trying to create (a) rift between Marathi and Gujarati communities, which unitedly voted for Modi in the Lok Sabha elections.”

Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aditya Thackeray put out a clarification on Twitter on same issue. He even asked people to retweet and spread the word.

In the clarification, Aditya stated that his statements from editorial were completely misconstrued with wrong translations. He also said that there was no lashing out and that the editorial sought for bringing together both the communities.

The piece ended with Aditya stating that there would be many more attempts to break this unity and that both the communities should strengthen the bond and love.

Our clarific and view on unnecessary controversy #Maharashtra #Gujarat #ShivSena Please RT pic.twitter.com/v2dXPngdUE

— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) May 2, 2014

In an editorial, the Shiv Sena had apparently accused the Gujarati community of exploiting Mumbai to earn wealth and criticized it for a lack of sense of belonging to the city and Maharashtra.

An editorial said: “The Gujarati and other bepari (trader) communities in Maharashtra which united with pride as Gujaratis for (Narendra Modi) must now come together for Shivray’s (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj) Maharashtra and join in the celebrations on Maharashtra’s foundation day………..Staying in Mumbai, they enjoyed wealth. They minted money… those who were penniless exploited Mumbai, Maharashtra and built their own Dwarka of gold and are calling the shots in the country’s power politics based on this wealth generated from Mumbai. They are chalking out plans on who is to be made the prime minister and who is to be deposed……………But, how many beparis come down from their skyscrapers to participate in the Maharashtra Day celebrations and repay their obligation to Maharashtra?

ગુરુવારે શિવસેનાના મુખપત્ર ‘સામના’ના તંત્રીલેખમાં એમ લખવામાં આવ્યું હતું કે ‘મહારાષ્ટ્ર માટે બલિદાન આપવાની શ્રદ્ધા ધરાવનારો સામાન્ય મરાઠી માણસ મહારાષ્ટ્ર દિને હુતાત્માઓનું સ્મરણ કરશે; પણ મલબાર હિલ, વાલકેશ્વર, કફ પરેડ, કોલાબા અને જુહુ ભાગમાં રહેતા ધનવાન ગુજરાતી લોકો મહારાષ્ટ્ર દિનની ઉજવણીમાં ભાગ નથી લેતા. મુંબઈમાં રહીને તેમણે આ શહેરને સેક્સ-વર્કરની જેમ વાપરીને સંપત્તિ મેળવી છે અને પોતાની સોનાની દ્વારકા ઊભી કરી છે. તેમની સંપત્તિની તાકાતથી તેઓ દેશમાં કોણ વડા પ્રધાન બનશે એની યોજના બનાવી રહ્યા છે, પણ સંયુક્ત મહારાષ્ટ્રની ચળવળ દરમ્યાન શહીદ થયેલા લોકોને શ્રદ્ધાંજલિ આપવા માટે કેટલા વેપારીઓ તેમનાં બહુમાળી બિલ્ડિંગોમાંથી ઊતરીને નીચે આવ્યા?’