MUMBAI: Amid the spiralling countrywide support to the youth protests against the NEET paper leak, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray on Thursday announced a joint march with students from Shivaji Park to Siddhivinayak temple on Sunday at 11.30 am. They invited Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Harshwardhan Sapkal and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar to join.
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Raj emphasised that the march would be held under the Indian flag and urged participants not to carry political party flags. “A few years ago, I had stated that while farmers were committing suicide, students would do so later if the situation did not change,” he said. “But instead of listening to students now and resolving the issue, the central government is cracking down on them. Why this arrogance of power? We pray to god to grant wisdom to them.” Uddhav quipped they would pray to God to set people free from the BJP-led government at the earliest.
While announcing the peaceful march, Raj warned potential infiltrators to stay away. “We saw anti-social elements in Delhi attack the police in order to disrupt the movement,” he said. “If anyone tries this in our march, we will thrash them.”
Raj lambasted the BJP for its “double standards” towards people’s movements, pointing out that when it was in the opposition, it too would organise protests and demand ministers’ resignations. “The then home minister of Maharashtra R R Patil had to resign after the 26/11 attack for one sentence,” he said.
Referring to PM Narendra Modi’s belated statement on X promising to set up fast-track courts for the exam leak, Raj said it had no significance. He also slammed the chief justice of India Surya Kant for saying he had no time to watch videos of police atrocities on students. “You called students cockroaches—now watch their strength,” he said.
The MNS chief also announced that he had sent a video of a Mumbai policeman, who allegedly threatened a student protester that he would place drugs in his pocket and book him for drug peddling, to the Mumbai police commissioner. “I have asked for action against the policeman,” he said.
Dubbing the Thackerays’ march “nothing but politics”, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the state’s biggest TET scam had occurred when Uddhav Thackeray was CM. “Everyone, right up to IAS officers, was involved,” he said. “Candidates who had actually failed were declared to have passed. When we, on the other hand, realised that a scam was brewing, we apprehended the perpetrators before the exam could take place. Stop hiding your own misdeeds while scrutinising the faults of others.”
Meanwhile, Aaditya Thackeray announced that the Friday evening agitation at Shivaji Park would not be cancelled. “This morning, we said there would be no march but we received thousands of messages from the youth to not cancel it. So now we have decided that all, irrespective of political ideology, will gather at Shivaji Park with the tricolour and sing the national anthem at around 5 pm.”
