“Doodh ka doodh…paani ka paani”: Amit Shah on Shinde’s ‘bow and arrow’ win

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], February 18 (ANI): A day after the Election Commission allotted the party name “Shiv Sena” and symbol “bow and arrow” to the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was on a visit to Pune on Saturday, said the poll panel established the fact that truth always prevails.

Speaking at an event, Shah said, “Yesterday the Election Commission made ‘doodh ka doodh, aur paani ka paani’ (established the difference between truth and lie yesterday). The formula of ‘Satyameva Jayate’ became significant yesterday. Shinde ji got bow and arrow symbol and the party name ‘Shiv Sena’.”

The Union Home Minister said India witnessed a great change in governance since 2014. He said the period 2014-2022 will be written in golden letters in the history of India.

Attacking the previous Congress government, Shah said, “During United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, every minister considered himself the Prime Minister and no minister considered the Prime Minister a Prime Minister. There was policy paralysis.”

Shah said the zero-tolerance policy against terrorism was first made in Gujarat.

“Infiltrators and terrorists from Pakistan used to come and behead our jawans and insult their severed heads. Silence used to settle on ‘Darbar’ in Delhi. Scams and corruption of Rs 12 lakh crore came before the nation one after another. Women were not safe, country’s borders were not safe,” he said.

Attacking the Congress government further, Shah said “Prime Minister was not respected in foreign countries and the respect for the country was at its lowest. When PM used to go abroad, he used to read out speeches written for him – sometimes reading Thailand’s speech in Singapore and vice versa. The country used to face insult.”

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who was also present at the programme attacked the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state calling the tenure a ‘waste’.

“The 2.5 years was a waste. We now have 2.5 years left with us, and we have to do a lot of work. Our ‘double horsepower’ government will work with all its strength under the leadership of PM Modi,” Fadnavis said.

Taking a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Fadnavis said, “Rahul Gandhi went to Kashmir and hoisted the Tricolour. He could not do this during the Congress regime because this became possible only when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah scrapped Article 370.”

In a major setback to the Uddhav Thackery faction of Shiv Sena, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday allotted the party name “Shiv Sena” and the symbol “Bow and Arrow” to the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Notably, both factions of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray) have been fighting for the bow and arrow symbol of the party since Shinde (present Maharashtra Chief Minister) revolted against Thackeray last year.

While the Shinde faction welcomed the decision to be recognized as the real Shiv Sena, the Uddhav Thackeray faction said they would move the Supreme Court.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction accused the Election Commission of haste and said the decision shows “it works as BJP agent”.

The Commission observed in its order that the current constitution of the Shiv Sena party is undemocratic and has been “mutilated to undemocratically appoint people from a coterie as office bearers without any election at all”. It said such party structures fail to inspire confidence.

Calling the poll panel’s decision as “murder of democracy”, Uddhav Thackeray said he will approach the Supreme Court against the decision.

Last month, both the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former CM Uddhav Thackeray-led factions of the Shiv Sena submitted their written statements in support of their claims of control over the party name and symbol to the Election Commission.

The ECI had frozen the bow and arrow symbol of the Shiv Sena and had allotted the ‘Two Swords and Shield symbol’ to the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena and the ‘flaming torch’ (mashaal) election symbol was allotted to the Uddhav Thackeray faction for the bypoll in Andheri East assembly constituency in November last year.