Proclaim India a Hindu state: Shiv Sena

Mumbai: Wondering how long attacks on the security forces will go on in Kashmir, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday demanded that India be proclaimed a ‘Hindu state’.

“We have to decide now... enough of this ‘secular’ stuff. The only option left is to declare India a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ if attacks on Hindus have to be prevented,” Thackeray said in his annual birthday eve interview.

The first of the three-part interview was published on Sunday in the party mouthpieces Saamana (Marathi) and Dopaharka Saamana (Hindi) ahead of his 56th birthday on July 27.

Thackeray was speaking to the dailies’ Executive Editor and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut.

The Sena chief said: “If speaking about Hindutva is a crime, at least shed the false pretensions of secularism -- as the country is now stuck between the two (Hindutva and secularism).

Persons linked to the Sanstha have been accused of involvement in the murder of rationalist and author Narendra Achyut Dabholkar in 2013 and left-wing author Govind Pansare in 2015.

He agreed with Raut that attempts are being to decimate Hindutva groups in the country, which he termed “strange”.

Dwelling on a variety of issues, Thackeray said people were at a loss and don’t understand what is going on in the country.

The Sena leader compared the current situation in the country, especially in Jammu and Kashmir, as “foggy” -- which he said was a matter of utmost concern for his party.

To a query on terror outfit Islamic State’s increasing influence in India, he said the government must get to the root of the problem and ferret out those behind the menace, those acting as inspiration for others.

The Sena leader said: “We don’t want a situation in India similar to some Muslim countries in the name of religion.”

Thackeray lamented that the government at the Centre had changed but it has not benefited the common people, whose fate remains “foggy, uncertain and bleak”, as was the case under the previous Congress-led government.

The second installment of the marathon interview will be published in the two newspapers on Monday.

IANS