On vada pav, Uddhav joins issue with Patil

Under fire from the NCP over its move to form a union of vada pav sellers and market the popular snack under the brand name ‘Shiv Vada Pav’, the Shiv Sena has sought to turn the heat on Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil for criticising the idea, saying that the state Government has “an allergy to the word Shiv”. Speaking to reporters, Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said: “The NCP has no positive issue to fight the Thane Lok Sabha by-elections and hence, it is seeking to raise an emotional issue by invoking Chhatrapati Shivaji’s name and giving an unnecessary twist to the vada pav issue.”

Campaigning in Thane, where Sena’s Anand Paranjpe is pitted against NCP’s Sanjeev Naik, Patil had criticised the Sena for its move to sell the snack under the brand name ‘Shiv’ on the ground that it amounted to defaming the warrior king.

Denying allegation that his party insulted Shivaji, Uddhav said that during the Shiv Sena-BJP rule, the Government had renamed its monthly mouthpiece Lokrajya as Shivrajya, but the Congress-NCP dispensation that took charge in 1999 had reversed the decision. He also blamed the Government for distributing permits to sell liquor and pointed out that a popular bidi brand was marketed under the brand name Sambhaji, but there was no opposition to it by the NCP.

“The Sena-BJP Government had named the international airport in Mumbai after Chhatrapati Shivaji and his statue was installed outside Parliament during Sena leader Manohar Joshi’s tenure as the Lok Sabha Speaker,” Uddhav said.