Mumbai: Widespread condemnation
notwithstanding, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Friday said he
stuck to his remarks about Sachin Tendulkar's
"Mumbai-for-Indians" stand and asked the cricket icon not to
"dabble" in politics.
"I stand by what I said. The bullet has been fired…. I
am firm in my opinion," Thackeray said today addressing the
party corporators’ meet at Sena Bhavan here.
The sena chief asked Sachin not to "dabble" in
politics. "He should stick to the cricket wicket and not
meddle with the pitch of politics".
"The right to decide who comes to Mumbai is our right,
not his," the Sena chief said.
Bal Thackeray had criticised Tendulkar for his
'Mumbai-for-all' remark, saying there was no need for the
cricket icon to take a "cheeky single" and "hurting" the
Marathi psyche by moving to the pitch of politics.
"By making these remarks, you have got run-out on the
pitch of Marathi psyche. You were not even born when the
'Marathi Manoos' got Mumbai and 105 Marathi people sacrificed
their lives to get Mumbai," he said.
Thackeray expressed displeasure that Sachin "left the
crease" and moved to the pitch of politics by making these
remarks.
In a rebuff to the 'Marathi Manoos' plank of the Shiv
Sena and Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Tendulkar
had said 'Mumbai is for all Indians.'
"Mumbai belongs to India. That is how I look at it.
And I am a Maharashtrian and I am extremely proud of that but
I am an Indian first," Tendulkar had said.
PTI
First Published: Friday, November 27, 2009, 23:28