Thackeray slams BJP’s ‘Saugat-E-Modi’ kits, calls it Satta Jihad

MUMBAI: Even as the BJP’s Maharashtra unit is busy distributing ‘Saugat-e-Modi’ kits among Muslims ahead of Ramzan Id, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday slammed the party’s cynical move. “It’s Saugat-E-Satta with an eye on the Bihar polls,” he said. “One can call it the Satta Jihad of the BJP. The party provokes ordinary Hindus to communal hatred and riots and then embraces the Muslim community for the sake of power.”

The 3.2 million ‘Saugat-e-Modi’ kits contain vermicelli, nuts, dry dates and other ingredients for sheer korma, the delicacy prepared on Ramzan Eid. The Maharashtra BJP has also planned functions at 100 places in the state to distribute the kits, while the party’s minority cell’s Mumbai unit will distribute kurta-pyjama sets to 7,000 staff members of mosques. It plans to distribute around 100,000 such kits across the state.

Interestingly, the Mahayuti government which distributed ‘Anandacha Shidha’, a food kit, on the occasion of eight festivals in the last two and a half years, did not distribute it for Ramzan or Bakri Eid.

At a press conference at Shiv Sena Bhavan, Thackeray remarked on how the BJP had moved from ‘Batenge to Katenge’ to ‘Saugat-e-Modi’ just before the Bihar elections. “During the Lok Sabha campaign, Modi also said that ‘they’ would steal the mangalsutras of Hindu women,” he said.. Now with this Saugat-E-Modi, are the mangalsutras of Hindu women safe?”

Thackeray, who has often been taunted for “giving up Hindutva” after he snapped ties with the BJP and formed a government with the Congress and NCP, asked what the BJP was doing now. “They have given up Hindutva for power and they should announce it officially,” he remarked.

Sachin Sawant, general secretary, Maharashtra Congress, said the BJP was distributing saugat but did not want to give Muslims equality as per the provisions of the Constitution. “The community has been getting secondary treatment for the last ten years under Modi,” he said.

In some areas, party office-bearers are facing resistance from Muslims, given the backdrop of the BJP’s anti-Muslim campaign during the elections last year. Idris Multani, state president of the BJP’s minority cell, however, denied this. “The kits are being distributed in Modiji’s name, and therefore there is no resistance from the community,” he said. “Our party targets only anti-national Muslims, and the nationalist Muslims stand by us.” Multani also insisted that the move was not appeasement since it was initiated and partly funded by the minority cell workers, who were always in touch with locals.

Wasim Khan, Mumbai president of the BJP minority cell said, “The Muslim community has been welcoming our steps, although there is resistance from the clerics and staff in masjids, as they do not want to participate in it openly,” he said. The Mumbai unit has procured the kit at ₹314 and the kurta pyjama sets at ₹340.

BJP’s Maharashtra chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, said, “The Saugat-E-Modi is not a drive but a guarantee of development. We have given basic amenities to people across the country under Modiji. Hindutva is in our DNA.”