 "Uddhav slams Modi for 'being parochial'")
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday slammed Gujarat Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s poll committee chief Narendra Modi for “being parochial” in the recent relief work that he did in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.
In the party's mouthpiece Saamna, Thackeray came down heavily on Modi’s campaign on the alleged issue of 15,000 pilgrims from Gujarat in a day from Uttarakhand.
Thackeray observed as Modi had been given a national role to play by the BJP, he should not speak in narrow terms for only Gujaratis.
“Most of the rescue works are being carried out by the Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. They don't discriminate on the basis of the victims’ state of origin or religion but rescue them as human beings,” Thackeray said.
His criticism comes at a time when his party has already expressed reservations on Modi’s nomination as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s prime ministerial candidate. The Sena has favoured leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj as the NDA’s PM candidate.
Thackeray showered praise on Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for adopting a broad-minded approach. “Chavan has shown Maharashtra's large-heartedness and magnanimity in the face of such a massive disaster, not only for the people of this state stranded in Uttarakhand but for victims from across the country,” he said.
He noted how Chavan declared, while dispatching a planeload of relief material with a large team of officials, that though the aid was intended for people from the state stranded in Uttarakhand, other victims would not be ignored.
Maharashtra has placed two helicopters at the disposal of the Uttarakhand government and extended aid of ~10 crore. It has been among the first states in the country to react quickly to the disaster.