Mumbai Under the siege of relentless attack by the opposition Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), several leaders have been targeted in police cases by the government of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. These include Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant, deputy leader Sushma Andhare and MLA Bhaskar Jadhav besides other leaders. Sawant has been booked for ridiculing Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane, whom he referred to as a ‘kombdi chor’ (chicken thief) at a public rally in Thane. . Jadhav has been booked for copying Shinde’s style during his speech at the October 5 Dussehra rally at Bandra Kurla Complex.
A case has also been registered for copying Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promises of providing employment to two crore youth in a Thane meeting on Andhera. Naupada Police Station (Thane) in a statement on October 9 meeting named other local level leaders and activists such as Anita Birje, Madhukar Deshmukh, Sachin Chavan and Rajan Raje of Dharmarajya Party. Accordingly, the police charged him under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for making provocative speeches, using objectionable language, attempting to incite sentiments and maligning CM Shinde’s image, etc. Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders expressed displeasure over the police action, terming it as “political vendetta” aimed at “silencing and destroying the opposition”. Shiv Sena (UBT) senior farmer leader Kishore Tiwari said that the Shinde-Fadnavis government is targeting party leaders who are raising their voice against the regime to bring down the rank-and-file of the party. . Tiwari said, does the government have the courage to put him in jail like other Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders? How many opposition leaders they will imprison, this is abuse of power and oppression of those who oppose them.
Condemning the incident, Nationalist Congress Party chief spokesperson Mahesh Taapsee said that the legitimacy of this (Shinde-Fadnavis) government is still pending before the Supreme Court, and the opposition Leaders have a fundamental right to criticize the shortcomings of the government. In such circumstances, such police action is anti-democratic and the government is trying to silence the opposition, Taapsee said. Senior Sena (UBT) union leader Raghunath Kuchik strongly criticized the police cases, saying the Shinde-Fadnavis government has crossed all limits of political decency by targeting political opponents. “When BJP was in opposition, they used abusive language against Maha Vikas Aghadi’s CM (Uddhav Thackeray), other ministers and party leaders, but we didn’t implicate them in petty cases,” demanded Kuchik. Cases should be withdrawn. Congress state leader G.S. Sachin Sawant said that this is another example of how BJP is shutting down opposition parties across India.
Sawant said though the language used by BJP leaders is highly derogatory, no action is taken against them. At present, two types of laws are clearly being seen, one for BJP leaders and the other for the opposition, which is very unfortunate. Andhare said that if speaking the truth is a crime, she is ready to face all the consequences of the police case registered against her, but she will continue to raise her voice against any injustice done to the people. Though both Andhare and Jadhav said that they had not received any information from the police, they added that whatever they said is in the public domain, Thane police is investigating. Earlier, Thane MP Rajan Vichare had alleged that the police was under pressure from CM Shinde and even served notices or notices to those who attended Thackeray’s Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park last week. facing trial. (IANS)
