Indian Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut has written a letter to Antonio Guterres seeking to recognise 20 June as ‘Jagatik Gaddar Din’ (‘World Traitors Day’).
For the uninitiated in Maharashtra state politics, 20 June 2022 was the day when the two factions of Shiv Sena came into being – Shiv Sena (SS) and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
In 2022, a group of 40 Shiv Sena MLAs walked out of the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi government headed by former CM Uddhav Thackeray.
The Thackeray government was toppled and Eknath Shinde with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra on 30 June 2022.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has legitimised CM Shinde’s faction as the real Shiv Sena and allotted the bow and arrow symbol to their political party.
Recently, Shiv Sena (UBT) President Thackeray mentioned the breakaway faction led by CM Shinde as ‘gaddars’ (traitors).
“On June 19, we would celebrate the Shiv Sena ‘vardhapan din’ (foundation day)…on 20 June it’s ‘World Traitors’ Day.”
Taking this one step further, MP Raut has petitioned the United Nations to make this a formal demand.
“We will collect signatures of lakhs of people from Maharashtra and send them to the United Nations.”
Meanwhile, the ruling Shiv Sena leaders have called both MP Raut and Shiv Sena (UBT) as the real ‘gaddars’ (traitors) to the cause of Hindutva and the ideals of the late Balasaheb Thackeray.
