``They are destroying their own mother, this is the ship that saved the nation in a crisis,'' Thackeray told Express Newsline, referring to the aircraft carrier's role in trapping over 90,000 Pakistani troops in Bangladesh during the 1971 Indo-Pak War.

With a war in Kargil raging, it was precisely the timing of the auction that galled the Sena supremo who has promised to personally intervene and stall the sale of the ship.

``Such people are not fit to rule the country,'' he said, refusing to elaborate further. But this barb was obviously directed at the state government who seemed to have ignored his desire to have the Vikrant saved.

Today's auction seems to have caught everyone including Thackeray by surprise, especially as he had intervened to havethe auction stalled last month.

Both Chief Minister Narayan Rane and Chief Secretary Arun Bongirwar today repeatedly insisted to the Sena chief that the auction had been delayed by a month, though the grim facts spelled otherwise.

``We raised Rs 21 crore for the army in Kargil, was Rs 5 crore such a big sum considering that the ship is equally important from the point of view of defence,'' Thackeray said, flanked by Dr Nitu Mandke and Kiran Paingankar of the Rashtra Chetna.

``The ship itself is a war memorial,'' Thackeray said as he unveiled his ideas for the decommissioned warship. He explained how it could become a memorial for fallen war heroes, a museum, a convention centre and an educational site all rolled into one. ``Today people easily forget our heroes but it is because of them that we are here today.''

``What do we show a visitor to Mumbai today? Asia's largest slum?'' asked Dr Nitu Mandke whose organisation Rashtra Chetna has spearheaded moves to save the ship.

Meanwhile, Thackeray wentinto a meeting with Chief Minister Rane late this evening in an attempt to stall the auction. The absence of Defence Minister George Fernandes from Delhi doesn't seem to have aided matters.

But for the state government which has hemmed and hawed and finally backed out of a proposal to convert the ship into a museum, time is fast running out. In a few months, the ship will be towed away for scrapping by the Haryana Shipbreakers, the highest bidders from 17 others in today's auction held in a nondescript hall at Marine Lines.

Officials from the Metal Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC) who conducted the auction today said that a final decision on the fate of the rusting hulk would be taken in Delhi.