Salman tweet row: BJP netas slam actor, but Raj keeps mum

MUMBAI: The ruling Shiv Sena-BJP combine on Sunday lashed out at Salman Khan for his tweet seeking pardon for the 1993 Mumbai serial blast convict Yakub Memon. And Raj Thackeray’s silence-almost eerie, according to party watchers-on the Khan issue made his followers restless all through the day, sources said.
The BJP seemed more aggressive than the Sena in working up Mumbai’s temper on the issue.While Sena president Uddhav Thackeray advised Shiv Sainiks to “ignore” the actor and his tweet, the BJP roped in its two key functionaries-Ashish Shelar and Kirit Somaiya-and the party’s youth cell, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, to lambast Khan.
The city BJP may have been prompted to tap the Salman row to re-bond with Hindutva vote bank in Mumbai in view of the 2017 BMC and the Thane civic elections, said political experts.
With Matoshree rolling up its sleeve on almost every decision of the Devendra Fadnavis government, speculation is rife in the BJP that the Sena may walk out on the ruling saffron alliance before the two crucial civic polls. Little surprise, then, that the BJP, which covets every opportunity to strengthen its roots in the city’s political terrain, grabbed the Salman Khan row with both hands on Sunday, added experts.
Ashish Shelar, the city BJP president and Bandra MLA, demanded that Khan’s bail, in the 2002 hit-and-run case, be immediately scrapped, and he should be sent to prison for showing disrespect to the Supreme Court and the law of the land.
Condemning Khan, BJP MP Kirit Somaiya said the actor has transgressed his limit by speaking against the Supreme Court verdict in the Memon death penalty case. “Khan should realise that he is a celebrity. He should display a sense of responsibility while airing views on matters of public importance,” said Somaiya. He said he would raise the issue in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
By contrast, Uddhav Thackeray advised Shiv Sainiks to ignore Khan’s remark. “If we keep tweeting like this then the process (of the law) will be unduly delayed,” said Thackeray. He was talking informally to mediapersons on the sidelines of a party event.
Yet, Shiv Sainiks in Satara and Shirdi tore down the posters of ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, Khan’s latest blockbuster. Sainiks stopped the exhibition of the film at Rajlakshmi, a popular cinema hall in Satara.
Raj refrained from speaking on the row, fuelling speculation among party workers that the party president was caught between his friendship of many years with the Khans, and the party’s political compulsions.