Despite all the hullabaloo, Shiv Sena on Thursday remained defiant and defended the actions of its Members of Parliament at Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi.
Saying that the MPs revolted against mismanagement at Maharashtra Sadan, Shiv Sena, in its publication ‘Saamna’, said the incident was blown out of proportion and given communal colour. The mouthpiece also said that insult of ‘Marathi manus’ will not be tolerated.
Underlining the existence of problems in canteen at Maharashtra Sadan, Shiv Sena said food must be force-fed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who has promised a probe in the incident.
The party also said that a huge amount of money was spent in building the Maharashtra Sadan, but there was nothing ‘Marathi’ in it.
An uproar was witnessed in Parliament on Wednesday when a video clip showed a Shiv Sena MP trying to force food into the mouth of a Muslim staffer of Maharashtra Sadan who was observing the Ramadan fast.
As the incident snowballed into a major controversy, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in Aurangabad had said: “We may have a Hindutva agenda, but we shall never play with the religious sentiments of any community.”
—-IANS