Maharashtra: Rainbow Alliance Leaders Sanjay Raut, Nawab Malik Tweet Poetic Jibes At BJP

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday took a veiled poetic jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) amid the ongoing political developments in Maharashtra. Taking to micro blogging website, Twitter, Raut quoting a dialogue from 1965 Bollywood film, Waqt, starring Sunil Dutt, Raaj Kumar and Shashi Kapoor wrote, ‘Jinke apne ghar sheeshay ke hoon ... woh doosron par patthar nahi phenka karte’, which roughly translates to: "Those whose own houses made of glass ... do not throw stones at others."

Sanjay Raut’s tweet was retweeted along with a comment by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik who wrote a couplet by Saghar Azmi, ‘bas ek hi thokar se gir jaengi diwaren aahista zara chaliye shishe ke makanon mein, loosely translating to, “Those who live in glass houses should worry.”

On Sunday, Raut slammed former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for his haste to attain power and said that ‘childish comments’ sank the BJP in Maharashtra and the latter became the opposition leader. Raut claimed, in his column ‘Rokhthok’ in the Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, that Maharashtra as well as the country has accepted the decision of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and Congress president Sonia Gandhi joining hands together. Attacking BJP central leadership, without naming it, Raut said Maharashtra did not bow down to the “mob-rule” like the functioning of Delhi.

What is significant is that Uddhav Thackeray came to power by dethroning the powerful “Modi-Shah hold”, remarked Raut, who is the executive editor of ‘Saamana’. He also expressed confidence that “this government (of Sena-NCP-Congress alliance) will survive for five years.”

“I find it amusing that the people who dubbed Ajit Pawar’s tie-up with Fadnavis as a ‘scripted’ plan of Sharad Pawar, are now bowing before the NCP chief after formation of the (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government,” Raut said.

Ahead of the Assembly polls, Fadnavis made “childish comments” like there would be no opposition party left in the state, the era of Sharad Pawar was ending and Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi would be main opposition.

“But he (Fadnavis) himself became the opposition leader,” the Rajya Sabha member quipped.

Fadnavis said he would come back, but his haste to attain power sank the BJP within 80 hours, he commented.

“Over-confidence and his (Fadnavis’) reliance on Delhi-based senior leaders destroyed his politics. The developments of last month look like a new script of the film ‘Sinhasan’ (throne),” Raut said.

He was referring to the 1979 Marathi film of the same name, which was loosely based on late author Arun Sadhu’s novels ‘Sinhasan’ and ‘Mumbai Dinank’.