Sena’s Hindutva different: Aaditya
New Delhi, May 19: Hindutva is one of the ideologies of Shiv Sena, but it is different from “BJP’s Hindutva”, argues Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray in a new book.
The book, The Young and the Restless, authored by studentactivist Gurmehar Kaur, is a series of interviews of country’s young politicians which include the likes of Omar Abdullah, Sachin Pilot, Aaditya Thackeray and Shehla Rashid.
“...Usually, a party like Shiv Sena is taken to be right wing, so you have Hindutva, which of
course is one of our ideologies. But it’s not BJP’s Hindutva; it’s very different from that.
“It is centrist but it’s right wing centrist because we are pragmatic and we are talking of things like say nightlife, electric buses and plastic pollution. You know, we are talking of something completely different,” said Mr Thackeray.
Yuva Sena chief Thackeray has been at the forefront of plastic ban narrative in Maharashtra and has also been pushing for 24x7 nightlife in Mumbai.
Mr Thackeray, whose party is in alliance with the BJP, listed various points where he believed his party differed from the BJP — like on “lynching” and calling people “anti-national”.
“...For example say, we actually spoke out against the lynching. Our Hindutva is loving the nation which is not again, if you speak against the government you’re anti-national.
“You have the right to question your government and you should be doing that and you should be doing that on every single thing,” said the 28year-old in the book.
On the question of religion in politics, and if he thinks “Hinduism faces any threat as a religion?” as claimed by the “BJP before every election”; his reply was rather straight, “I don’t think government should be concerned about religion”.