New Delhi:
The Shiv Sena attacked the BJP-led central government today after the arrest of a second minister of the Maharashtra government, saying they were stabbed in the back by troops who could not take them in a fair fight. In a tweet, senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut quoted Afzal Khan, the rival of Maharashtra’s greatly revered figure Chhatrapati Shivaji. In the same tweet, he added Kansa and Ravana, the arch-villains of mythology, with a parting shot: “This is Hinduism”.
State Minister for Development Cooperation, Nawab Malik, has been arrested today in a money laundering case linked to fugitive mobster Dawood Ibrahim, four months after Anil Deshmukh’s arrest in a corruption case.
The arrest comes after his clash with Narcotics Control Bureau agent Sameer Wankhede, who oversaw the drugs-on-cruise case, which also saw megastar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan arrested.
Malik’s son-in-law, Sameer Khan, was also arrested last year in a drug case by the NCB unit in Mumbai led by Wankhede, and the officer had accused the minister of playing retaliatory politics.
“When they couldn’t fight Maha Vikas Aghadi face to face, they attacked from behind like Afzal Khan. Let it go.. If anyone enjoys illegally evicting a minister, then let them. We will fight and win without it.” resignation of Nawab Malik. Kansa and Ravana were also killed. This is Hinduism. The battle has just begun. Jai Maharashtra,” read his tweet in Hindi.
Days ago, Mr Raut’s boss, Prime Minister Uddhav Thackeray, had another religion-related backlash aimed at former BJP ally, saying: “The situation in the country and the way low-level politics are conducted is not Hindutva” .
“Hindutva is not about violence or revenge. If this continues, what is the future of the country?” he had added.
The Maharashtra government has today made it clear that the BJP’s demand for Nawab Malik to step down will not be met.
“In the last 30 years, no one has mentioned Nawab Malik in connection with the Mumbai bombing. But now he is speaking against the Union government, so to keep his mouth shut, he was arrested today,” Maharashtra’s minister Chhagan said bhujbal.
Malik’s party chief, Sharad Pawar, has also sharply criticized the Center, saying appealing to Dawood is the surest way to “discredit rivals”.
Citing the accusation of his ties to the underworld when he was the prime minister, Mr Pawar said: “25 years later, the same ploy is being used to harass and defame”.