Shiv Sena on Tuesday escalated its broadside against the BJP over demonetisation with party chief Uddhav Thackeray saying the senior ally should stop branding people as partiots or anti-nationals as per its “whims and fancies”.
The hard hitting remarks by the Sena came when it took strong exception to Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis’s statement that those opposing the move are harming the country. Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ came out with yet another stinging editorial, holding that the currency scrapping exercise has failed to unearth the “real” black money and that it only helped the government deflect attention from burning issues like hunger, inflation and unemployment.
“You do not need to teach patriotism to people who are distressed and quietly standing in queues. Their hard earned money is being used for all works in the country. Thus, you should not label people as patriots or anti- nationals,”Thackeray told reporters.
Fadnavis, while addressing a civic election rally at Ratnagiri recently, had said those opposing PM Modi on demonetisation were harming the country and people should come together to win this decisive battle against black money. On reports of Reserve Bank mulling opening of “Islamic window” in conventional banks for “gradual” introduction of Sharia-compliant or interest-free banking in the country, he wondered as to where the country was heading.