THE Shiv Sena, which is not too happy over Sachin Tendulkar’s decision to accept the Rajya Sabha nomination, is now making noises on how the cricketer is not available for a felicitation by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ( BMC), which it heads.
Sena corporator and BMC Standing Committee chairman Rahul Shewale said that Sachin’s inability to give the civic body time for his felicitation tantamount to “ disrespect to the citizens of Mumbai.” Shewale claimed that Sachin always claimed to be busy but “ has time to go to Delhi for a Rajya Sabha seat.” The master batsman and the party headed by Bal Thackeray have a lot of history between them.
Tendulkar first antagonised the Sena when he declared in a press conference said “ Mumbai is for all.” While it was considered a rebuke to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena ( MNS), it was actually the Shiv Sena who slammed the cricketer for comments.
As the Sena was roundly criticised for their comments against Sachin, they got more belligerent and even questioned his contribution to Maharashtra.
Things went so bad that when Sachin was doing a BMC ad to encourage people to save water, the Sena found fault with the campaign and had it changed. Some said that Sachin was being targeted because of his perceived closeness to MNS chief Raj Thackeray.
“ It is a lie that Sachin has said that he has no time for the BMC. In 2010, he gave his time to the BMC for its ‘ Save Water’ campaign’. It was done free of cost. The Sena targeted him for flimsy reasons and had the advertisement modified,” said a BMC official.