The Hindu : National : It's nothing personal, says Bal Thackeray

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Sunday, Feb 04, 2007
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National

National

It's nothing personal, says Bal Thackeray

Mumbai: Fresh from his party's win in the Mumbai civic polls, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Saturday stuck to his controversial statement on President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, saying the President had "not maintained the dignity" of his position by "sitting" on Afzal Guru's clemency petition.

"What is wrong with what I have said about Kalam? I was after all a caricaturist once and if I comment on his long hair there is nothing out of the ordinary.

"We have also voted for him to become President. I have nothing against him personally," he said in a rare media appearance. Noting that the President's actions did not "reflect" his esteemed position, Mr. Thackeray said Mr. Kalam was a leading scientist of the country but had "lost the dignity of the post" after he became President.

"Afzal was sentenced to death by the highest court in this country in October and yet the file has been sitting on the President's table for the past four months. Has such a thing ever happened before?" he said. Reiterating the party's Hindutva agenda, he said, "We have several States in the country, all of them divided by linguistic barriers. But it is time that they all came together with the magic word of Hindutva, because only Hindutva can contain the growing network of Islam."

On whether the victory in Mumbai's civic polls was a vote to save Mumbai, he said "Yes, it is. Our election campaign, the editorials in Saamna, caused the Marathi man to awaken. He was angry at the attempts to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra and that is why he voted for us."

He credited the victory to the hard work put in by "staunch loyal Shiv Sainiks like Manohar Joshi, Subhash Desai and others."

When asked if the exits of Raj Thackeray and Narayan Rane had affected the party, he said, "Do you think we would have unfurled the saffron flag on the BMC had we been affected? When you buy a new shoe, it will give you a bite for a few days, but that does not mean you discard it." — PTI

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