Everybody asked Nupur Sharma to apologise, I supported her, says Raj Thackeray

India

oi-Deepika S

Mumbai,
Aug
23:
Maharashtra
Navnirman
Sena
(MNS)
chief
Raj
Thackeray
on
Tuesday
backed
suspended
BJP
spokesperson
Nupur
Sharma
over
her
remarks
against
Prophet
Mohammad.

Controversial
Islamic
preacher
Zakir
Naik
had
said
the
same
thing
earlier
but
no
one
asked
him
to
apologise,
Thackeray
said
while
addressing
a
meeting
of
MNS
functionaries
here.

Nobody
asked
Naik
for
an
apology,
the
MNS
chief
said.

Thackeray
also
slammed
the
Owaisi
brothers
(AIMIM
leaders)
for
allegedly
ridiculing
the
names
of
Hindu
gods.
No
action
has
been
taken
against
them,
he
said,
using
an
abusive
term
while
referring
to
them.

The
MNS
chief
also
taunted
his
estranged
cousin
and
former
Chief
Minister
Uddhav
Thackeray
over
the
latter’s
claim
that
the
BJP
reneged
on
the
promise
of
rotating
the
CM’s
post
after
the
2019
Assembly
elections
in
Maharashtra.

When
I
was
in
Shiv
Sena,
Balasaheb
(Thackeray)
had
decided
that
the
party
having
more
MLAs
will
have
the
CM
post,
he
said.

Also,
during
the
election
campaign,
PM
Narendra
Modi
and
Amit
Shah
had
publicly
said
that
Devendra
Fadnavis
(present
Deputy
Chief
Minister
of
Maharashtra)
will
be
the
CM.
Why
did
you
not
object
then
instead
of
waiting
for
the
poll
results
and
going
against
the
people’s
mandate
which
was
for
the
BJP-Shiv
Sena
alliance,
he
said.

Raj
Thackeray
said
the
late
Shiv
Sena
founder
had
hugged
him
when
he
was
about
to
leave
that
party.

I
had
gone
to
meet
Balasaheb.
He
knew
I
was
not
staying
(in
the
Sena).
He
hugged
me
and
said:
Now
you
can
go,
the
MNS
chief
recalled.

I
want
to
take
Balasaheb’s
ideology
forward.
It
doesn’t
matter
if
I
don’t
have
the
symbol
(bow
and
arrow
symbol
of
Shiv
Sena),
he
said.