By Quaid Najmi
Mumbai, Jun 20 (IANS): In a huge embarrassment for the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance, the Opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut has drawn the attention of the United Nations to the 'treason' perpetrated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his group last year, here on Tuesday.
The development comes on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's high-profile State Visit to the US, starting Wednesday.
Raut, along with former CM Uddhav Thackeray, Aditya Thackeray plus the Maha Vikas Aghadi ally Nationalist Congress Party had demanded that June 20 -- the day when Shinde walked out of the original Shiv Sena in 2022 -- should be declared as 'World Traitors Day' by the UN.
Following up on the demand, Raut has shot off a letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres seeking the declaration of June 20 as 'World Traitors Day', and giving a backgrounder to the unusual plea before the global body.
"On June 20 (2022), a huge group of 40 legislators from our Shiv Sena left us after being instigated by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Each of them is said to have taken Rs 50-crore to defect. The BJP used all their might to ensure that Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra led by Uddhav Thackeray fell," said Raut.
Raut said that the 40 MLAs who backstabbed Thackeray, along with 10 Independent legislators, were led by Eknath Shinde, who is now the CM.
Justifying the date of June 20, he said that the process of leaving the party began on that day in 2022 when Shinde and others left Mumbai for neighbouring Gujarat.
"They deserted Uddhav Thackeray who was an ailing man and underwent two major surgeries Nov. 12 and Nov. 19 (2021). Each one of them (MLAs) took advantage of his illness," said Raut, affording a curtain-raiser on the pre-toppling drama in Maharashtra to the UN-SG.
"Hence, I am appealing to you to make June 20 as World Traitors Day just as June 21 is observed as World Yoga Day. This must be done so that the world remembers Traitors," urged Raut in the letter to Guterres which was released Tuesday.
This is probably the first time that an Indian state's political issue has gone to the table of the world body with a peculiar request to dedicate a day in the international calendar for remembering turncoats, back-stabbers or deserters.
In an apparent counter to Raut, BJP MLA Nitesh Rane has now proposed that June 27 should be proclaimed as a 'World Anti-Nationals Day' and plans to write to the UN for the same.
Unfazed by Raut's contentions with the dreaded words -- 'gaddars' (traitors) and '50 khokhas' (slang for Rs 50-crore) -- popping to the fore again, the ruling Shiv Sena has said that it will mark June 20 as a 'self-respect day' or 'pride day'.
Incidentally, both -- the Shiv Sena and the Shiv Sena (UBT) -- celebrated their foundation days on June 19 (Monday) with the top leaders Shinde and Thackeray shooting barbs at each other.