Mumbai: A massive student-led victory gathering on Sunday turned into a high-octane political platform as the Thackeray cousins mounted a sharp attack on the Centre.MNS chief Raj Thackeray led a one-minute silence in memory of the 21 students who died by suicide following the NEET paper leak controversy, praising the youth for taking the fight directly to the establishment.Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray framed the gathering as the start of a broader democratic movement. “All of you came here together, having forgotten religion, caste and creed, and this wave of yours has today made the rulers silent. This is the true avatar of Vishnu,” he said. “No election has been won today. Deshbhakt (patriots) have defeated andhbhakt (blind followers). This is the beginning of a bigger struggle. This is a fight between BJP and India,” he asserted.
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Training his guns on PM Narendra Modi, Uddhav urged a shift from partisan politics to governance. “Your ministers are busy breaking political parties. Tell them to start working for the nation,” he said. “How painful was it to remove your favourite Dharmendra [Pradhan, former Union education minister] from the cabinet? Was that pain greater than what families suffered when their children took their own lives? Today isn’t the day for long speeches—deeds are more important than words, and this protest of yours will be written in golden words in the democratic history of this country.”Uddhav then criticised the wider cabinet, alleging that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman ignored the falling rupee and the rising inflation and instead explained the “benefits” of a paper leak, while “defence minister Rajnath Singh should be protecting borders but is defending Pradhan”.Directing the final jibe at transport minister Nitin Gadkari, Uddhav called him the khadda (potholes) minister for pushing E20 fuel and warned, “This is definitely the next issue.”Urging the crowd to sustain the momentum, he said: “Do not let this awakening fade away. You have shown the strength of the people.”
