The differences between the RSS and the Sena came out in the open on Sunday, with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat issuing a strong directive to Sangh members to protect North Indians in Maharastra against “the competitive hate politics” of the Shiv Sena and the breakaway Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
In Bangalore, BJP president Nitin Gadkari sought to skirt the issue saying that he would first like to understand the views of the RSS chief. Gadkari, who is from Maharashtra, saw “no clash” between RSS’s stress on protecting North Indians in Mumbai and the Sena wanting to ‘protect’ the interests of Marathi-speaking people.
Bhagwat’s broadside
In a broadside against the Sena, Bhagwat said: “People of all languages, communities and tribes are children of India and nobody can prevent Indians from moving to any part of the country in search of employment.”
Former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi has also sought to completely reject “discrimination based on region, religion, language or sex”. Speaking to Deccan Herald, Joshi said the party can never approve of discriminatory treatment of the country’s citizens and such “divisive attempts” should be effectively dealt with.
The two Maharashtra-focused political outfits have even prompted the Congress government in the state to come out with a diktat last week that only Marathi language-speaking taxi drivers would be entitled to a driving licence in Mumbai. The Chavan government beat a hasty retreat after the intervention of the Central Congress leadership saying “other languages would also do.”
Senior RSS leader Ram Madhav said: “The Sangh Parivar has asked its volunteers in Maharashtra to try and prevent spread of anti-North Indian and anti-Hindi feelings,” adding that there should not be any discrimination on the basis of language.
The RSS was of the view that India was one from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and that steps should be taken to check disturbances and citizens rights be protected, Madhav said.
In his riposte, Sena leader and former chief minister Manohar Joshi said the RSS need not come to the state to protect North Indians as it would be done by the Shiv Sena itself.