Sena raises pitch on Sachin,says Sunil ‘true Maharashtrian’

Sena chief Bal Thackeray had taken on Tendulkar for his remarks about Mumbai belonging to India. Thackeray was then criticised by leaders across the political establishment.

“Sachin is great as a player and it must be said that he belongs to the country,because there is no example of Sachin having helped any (Marathi) player as a Maharashtrian. When Vinod Kambli was not helped by him,what can be the chances for others!” said the weekly column on Sunday by Saamna executive editor and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut,who is also the party spokesperson.

Of Gavaskar,he said,“When Gavaskar was the captain of the Indian cricket team,half the team was drawn from Mumbai and Maharashtra.” Raut cited the example of Suru Nayak and Zulfikar Parkar and credited Gavaskar for their selection. “In this sense,Gavaskar seems like a true Maharashtrian,” said Raut,adding that the team in which Sachin played did not represent the country,but the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by the board’s own admission.

“Many upholders of Marathi preferred to lie low on this issue,because Sachin is a popular Maharashtrian. But the nature of the statements made by our Sachin,Abu Azmi and Jaya Bachchan on Mumbai are the same,” said Raut in his column Rokhthok (Upfront).

Without naming either Raj Thackeray or the MNS,Raut alleged while Azmi had been slapped (by MNS men) in the Assembly,Bachchan had to apologise for her comments. “But,when a Maharashtrian makes these statements,there is no opposition. He is deemed a patriot,but Bachchan,Azmi are decried as enemies of Maharashtra,” he added.

“Sachin is great as a cricketer,but he is not bigger than Maharashtra,” said Raut. He said former Chief Minister Yashwantrao Chavan had to face the ire of the Maharashtrians after his statements about then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru being greater than Maharashtra (which was made during a movement demanding the creation of a unified Marathi-speaking state of Maharashtra with its capital at Mumbai).

The column added that Tendulkar’s father,the late Ramesh Tendulkar,who was a Marathi poet,would have also taken on his son for his comments.

Raut reiterated Thackeray’s stand that though Mumbai is the economic capital of India,it is the capital of Maharashtra first. Raut,whose brother Sunil has been accused of engineering an attack on Marathi news channel IBN Lokmat,said if Thackeray had not kept the Marathi flag flying high in Mumbai,Marathi news channels would not have been able to operate. The column added that the blood spilt and the sacrifice of the martyrs of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement was more important than the performance of Sachin on the cricket field. It also said that Sachin needed to be proud of being a Maharashtrian like Sourav Ganguly was proud of being a Bengali.

Congress spokesperson Anant Gadgil said the Sena leadership is desperately trying to see if any issue would click after its loss in the polls. “They are playing the role of a last batsman in the last over of a losing match,hitting in all directions,” Gadgil said.

“I think he (Saamna editor Sanjay Raut) should realise that by criticising Tendulkar,he is only harming his own party. Whatever he says against Tendulkar will reduce his party’s vote bank in Maharashtra because no Maharashtrian is liking what they are saying. Drawing parallels between Gavaskar and Tendulkar or pitching him against Kambli or saying that he hasn’t contributed anything to Maharashtra,I don’t think anybody will subscribe to this kind of argument,”said Rajeev Shukla,Congress Rajya Sabha MP and BCCI’s Finance Committee chairman.