Apart from being general secretary of the Shiv Sena, Sanjay Raut wears many other hats for the party — as the executive editor of its mouthpiece ‘Samana’, spokesman, a Rajya Sabha MP, but more importantly, a confidant of the party’s executive president Uddhav Thackeray. The man who almost successfully rocked the boat of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance by advocating closer ties with the Nationalist Congress Party and its president Sharad Pawar, tells Makarand Gadgil that his party wholeheartedly supports senior BJP leader L K Advani’s candidature for the prime ministership and there is no question of supporting anyone else for the post. Excerpts:
What is going to be theme of the Sena’s campaign during this Lok Sabha elections?
Obviously security and terrorism are going to be our major plank. Today, no one in Maharashtra, or for that matter in the country, feels secured — no one knows where the next bomb blasts will take place or whether terrorists will enter the country by sea or any other route and target which metropolis. Everyone has seen how Mumbai police were not in a position to take on the terrorists as neither they were trained to tackle terrorists nor they had modern arms to finish the job.
There has been talks about modernising the police force for several years but no concrete action could be taken because the Congress and its ‘secular’ friends don’t take the issue of terrorism seriously. They see every issue only from the angle of keeping their minority vote bank intact. Besides these, issues like farmer suicides, job losses due to the global recession, land scam under the name of SEZ, will also figure in our poll campaign.
Don’t you think the Congress-NCP government in the state has taken away one of your major talking points by announcing the loan waiver?
Our demand was never loan waiver. What we demanded was to make land title of the farmers completely free of any encumbrance, irrespective of from whom he has taken the loan, which has still not happened despite loan waiver packages by central and state governments. Still many farmland are mortgaged with money lenders, non-agricultural credit cooperative societies, etc. And despite these so-called loan waivers, farmers continue to commit suicides as they don’t get remunerative prices. So, all these issues are still relevant and are going to be the focus of our campaign.
The ties between the BJP and Shiv Sena soured recently due to the Sena’s stand on supporting Sharad Pawar for primeministership as he is a Marathi Manoos !
We are part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and we wholeheartedly support L K Advani’s candidature for primeministership and there is no question of supporting anyone else for the post.
However, there is a reasonable expectation of Maharashtrians to see a Maharashtrain as the country’s prime minister as people of various states have become prime ministers so far. However, whenever we say this, people jump to conclusion and say we are supporting Pawar’s candidature. There are many other capable leaders in the state other than Pawar who can become the prime minister.
But will you support Pawar in case both the BJP-led NDA and Congress-led UPA fail to come to power and some alternative combination forms the government in Delhi?
We believe in thinking positively, and so we think Advanji will be the next prime minister of the country.
However, sudden bonhomie between the Sena and NCP has created doubts among your alliance partners about the commitment to your partner?
Maharashtra’s political culture is different from many other states. Here, we don’t believe in mixing political rivalry and personal relationship and this culture is since the days of Yashwantrao Chavan. Balasheb Thackeray and Pawar have been sharing excellent personal relationship for the last 40 years, so if they meet each other or their families meet each other, politics is not always on the agenda.
