The Evening Wrap: Uddhav Thackeray must resign, says BJP’s Narayan Rane

Claiming that the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress) in Maharashtra was no longer in existence after Shiv Sena Minister Eknath Shinde’s intra-party rebellion, Union Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Narayan Rane on Tuesday called upon Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to voluntarily tender his resignation. “It is a question mark whether Uddhav Thackeray knows the Constitution. Of your [Shiv Sena’s] 56 MLAs, 35 have left [siding with Mr. Shinde]…You are in a minority. What is he [Mr. Thackeray] waiting for? Ideally, he should have submitted his resignation to the Governor,” said Rane. Congratulating Shinde on his decision, Rane — a former Shiv Sainik and Thackeray’s bitter rival — alleged that the voices of true Shiv Sainiks had been stifled by the Thackeray family all this while and accused Uddhav Thackeray of repeatedly insulting and sidelining Shinde by making hollow promises. “Uddhav Thackeray has never known how to keep his word… Nobody except ‘Matoshree’ [Thackeray’s private residence] had the right to do anything during the Thackeray regime. Despite promising to make Mr. Shinde the Chief Minister and get him to incur expenditure during elections, Mr. Thackeray himself became CM,” the BJP leader said. Rane further said that Shinde was Urban Development Minister in name only, with the actual signing on files being done by Aaditya Thackeray (Uddhav Thackeray’s son) and his cousin, Varun Sardesai. “Finally, all this resulted in Eknath Shinde’s self-respect being hurt…I commend him on his decision. It is a very good thing from Maharashtra’s point of view given that the State has seen no development in the last two-and-a-half-years and only politics of malice being practised by the MVA,” said the BJP leader. Rane said the very fact that Shinde reportedly told the Sena leaders who tried to parley with him in Surat that he would think of going back to the Sena only if it left its alliance with the NCP and the Congress proved that the MVA’s formation had been a big mistake. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra council polls for 10 seats resulted in a nail-biting finish with the BJP yet again trumping over the MVA -- after the Rajya Sabha polls -- by winning five out of ten seats. In what could be an alarming situation for the State government, three MLAs each from Congress and Shiv Sena cross-voted in a secret ballot held on Monday. In Monday’s council poll, a total of 12 Sena MLAs cross-voted in favour of BJP candidates. Presidential polls: Yashwant Sinha to be common Opposition candidate Former Trinamool Congress leader Yashwant Sinha will be be the common candidate for presidential elections, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on June 21, reading out a joint Opposition statement after the meeting of Opposition parties. Announcing Sinha’s candidature, Ramesh said, “Ideally, there should be a consensus candidate. We regret the fact that the Modi Government made no serious efforts in this direction. We appeal to all political parties to support Yashwant Sinha so that India could have a worthy President.” Earlier today before the joint Opposition meeting to decide a common presidential candidate, TMC vice-president Yashwant Sinha resigned from all party posts. Announcing his resignation, Sinha tweeted, “I am grateful to Mamata ji for the honour and prestige she bestowed on me in the TMC. Now a time has come when for a larger national cause I must step aside from the party to work for greater Opposition unity. I am sure she approves of the step.” On June 20, former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi had backed out of the race. He was the third public figure after Sharad Pawar and Farooq Abdullah to do so. Following, Gandhi’s announcement, the Opposition parties had an informal meeting on Monday evening where Sinha’s name was zeroed in on. Sinha’s candidature was finalised only after he resigned from Trinamool Congress. The Left parties had insisted that if Sinha is to be the joint candidate of the opposition he must contest as an independent. He had joined the TMC only last year and resigned from the party just hours before his name was announced. Mob storms yoga day event in Maldives An angry mob on Tuesday stormed the Maldives national football stadium and attacked participants at the ‘Yoga Day’ event organised by the Indian High Commission and the Maldivian government. The country’s police force soon arrived and tackled the mob, allowing the event to resume, Male-based officials said. Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih termed it a matter of “serious concern”. Soon after the incident, he said in a tweet: “An investigation has been launched by @PoliceMv into the incident that happened this morning at Galolhu stadium. This is being treated as a matter of serious concern and those responsible will be swiftly brought before the law.” The Government of Maldives “strongly condemned” the incident. “Such malicious acts of violence aimed at disrupting public safety and undermining security of individuals and the diplomatic corps will not be tolerated,” the Indian Ocean island nation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Video footage of the incident captured by Maldivian media showed angry men, carrying poles and flags, raging towards participants seated on the ground on yoga mats, and trying to attack them. The Maldives Police Service said it traced the items used by the attackers to the office of the Opposition Progressive Party of the Maldives, led by former President Abdulla Yameen, who is currently spearheading an ‘India Out’ campaign. “As of now, the evidence indicates that the demonstrators were using items taken from the office of the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM),” the police said in a statement. The perpetrators had “sought to incite fear by forcefully entering, destroying property, and attempting to assault participants of the event,” said the police, after taking six men into custody in connection with the incident. In a tweet on Tuesday, the Maldives police also sought citizens’ assistance, by way of any evidence or information pertaining to the incident. Prior to the event, authorities noticed messages on social media deriding the ‘Yoga Day’ event. The messages claimed yoga was a Hindu mode of worship and urged people of the Islamic country to stay away from the practice. Around 150 people, including many Maldivian citizens, diplomats, and senior government officials were present at the venue on Tuesday morning, according to sources in Male. No one was seriously hurt in the attack by the mobs, they said. The ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) “unequivocally condemned” the “violent attack”. “These types of egregious and violent acts have no place in a peaceful democratic society such as ours,” the party said in a statement, which noted that the Maldives has been marking ‘World Yoga Day’ since 2015. The Maldives was among the 177 countries that co-sponsored a resolution at the United Nations in 2014, declaring June 21 as the ‘International Day of Yoga’. Sri Lanka’s Parliament sessions curbed as fuel crisis bites Sri Lanka’s Parliament sessions will be restricted to two days this week instead of four days amid the current fuel supply crisis in the country, the leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardena said on Tuesday. The island nation, home to around 22 million people, is currently facing its worst economic crisis in more than 70 years. Sri Lanka’s economy is experiencing extreme fuel shortages, soaring food prices and a lack of medicines. “In view of the current fuel supplies crisis we have decided to limit the parliamentary sessions for today and tomorrow,” Gunawardena announced. When Parliament met this morning, the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya party and the Marxist National People’s Power party said they were boycotting the sessions to protest the Government’s inaction to tackle the current economic crisis. SJB leader Sajith Premadasa said since the government lacked a strategy to tackle the crisis there was little use in spending time in Parliament. “We see no plan on the part of the government to solve the current economic and fuel shortages issue,” Anura Kumara Dissanayake, NPP leader said. He said the fuel queues have lengthened since the new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed in mid-May. At the start of today’s session Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene said the main opposition’s proposal on the 21st Amendment to the Constitution has been deemed to require a national referendum for most of its provisions which are inconsistent with the Constitution. The Speaker was reading the determination he received from the Supreme Court. Sri Lankan Cabinet on Monday approved the 21st Amendment to the Constitution aimed at empowering Parliament over the executive president. The 21st Amendment is expected to annul the 20A to the Constitution, which gives unfettered powers to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after abolishing the 19th Amendment that strengthened Parliament. Sri Lanka is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an economic programme that could be supported by the global lender’s lending arrangement for the country which is seeking to find $6 billion to keep it afloat for the next six months. The IMF, however, has placed a number of conditions in order to agree to a bailout package. The nearly bankrupt country, with an acute foreign currency crisis that resulted in foreign debt default, announced in April that it is suspending nearly $7 billion foreign debt repayment due for this year out of about $25 billion due through 2026. Sri Lanka's total foreign debt stands at $51 billion. The crisis has forced Sri Lankans to wait in lines lasting hours outside stores to buy fuel and cooking gas. In Brief Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the annual summit of the five-nation grouping BRICS on June 23 and 24 following an invitation by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Tuesday. China is hosting the summit in its capacity as its chair of the grouping for the current year. The BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) brings together five of the largest developing countries in the world, representing 41 per cent of the global population, 24% of the global GDP and 16 per cent of the global trade. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 21 JUNE 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Uddhav Thackeray must resign, says BJP’s Narayan Rane Claiming that the [tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress)]( in Maharashtra was no longer in existence after Shiv Sena Minister Eknath Shinde’s intra-party rebellion, Union Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Narayan Rane on Tuesday called upon Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to voluntarily tender his resignation. “It is a question mark whether Uddhav Thackeray knows the Constitution. Of your [Shiv Sena’s] 56 MLAs, 35 have left [siding with Mr. Shinde]…You are in a minority. What is he [Mr. Thackeray] waiting for? Ideally, he should have submitted his resignation to the Governor,” said Rane. [Union Minister Narayan Rane addresses a press conference in Mumbai on June 21, 2022.] [Congratulating Shinde on his decision, Rane — a former Shiv Sainik and Thackeray’s bitter rival]( — alleged that the voices of true Shiv Sainiks had been stifled by the Thackeray family all this while and accused Uddhav Thackeray of repeatedly insulting and sidelining Shinde by making hollow promises. “Uddhav Thackeray has never known how to keep his word… Nobody except ‘Matoshree’ [Thackeray’s private residence] had the right to do anything during the Thackeray regime. Despite promising to make Mr. Shinde the Chief Minister and get him to incur expenditure during elections, Mr. Thackeray himself became CM,” the BJP leader said. Rane further said that Shinde was Urban Development Minister in name only, with the actual signing on files being done by Aaditya Thackeray (Uddhav Thackeray’s son) and his cousin, Varun Sardesai. “Finally, all this resulted in Eknath Shinde’s self-respect being hurt…I commend him on his decision. It is a very good thing from Maharashtra’s point of view given that the State has seen no development in the last two-and-a-half-years and only politics of malice being practised by the MVA,” said the BJP leader. Rane said the very fact that Shinde reportedly told the Sena leaders who tried to parley with him in Surat that he would think of going back to the Sena only if it left its alliance with the NCP and the Congress proved that the MVA’s formation had been a big mistake. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra council polls for 10 seats resulted in a nail-biting finish with the BJP yet again trumping over the MVA -- after the Rajya Sabha polls -- by winning five out of ten seats. In what could be an alarming situation for the State government, three MLAs each from Congress and Shiv Sena cross-voted in a secret ballot held on Monday. In Monday’s council poll, a total of 12 Sena MLAs cross-voted in favour of BJP candidates. Presidential polls: Yashwant Sinha to be common Opposition candidate [Former Trinamool Congress leader Yashwant Sinha will be be the common candidate for presidential elections]( Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on June 21, reading out a joint Opposition statement after the meeting of Opposition parties. Announcing Sinha’s candidature, Ramesh said, “Ideally, there should be a consensus candidate. We regret the fact that the Modi Government made no serious efforts in this direction. We appeal to all political parties to [support Yashwant Sinha]( so that India could have a worthy President.” Earlier today before the joint Opposition meeting to decide a common presidential candidate, TMC vice-president Yashwant Sinha resigned from all party posts. Announcing his resignation, Sinha tweeted, “I am grateful to Mamata ji for the honour and prestige she bestowed on me in the TMC. Now a time has come when for a larger national cause I must step aside from the party to work for greater Opposition unity. I am sure she approves of the step.” [Opposition party leaders during a press conference after the announcement of the presidential candidate, in New Delhi on June 21, 2022.] On June 20, former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi had backed out of the race. He was the third public figure after Sharad Pawar and Farooq Abdullah to do so. Following, Gandhi’s announcement, the Opposition parties had an informal meeting on Monday evening where Sinha’s name was zeroed in on. Sinha’s candidature was finalised only after he resigned from Trinamool Congress. The Left parties had insisted that if Sinha is to be the joint candidate of the opposition he must contest as an independent. He had joined the TMC only last year and resigned from the party just hours before his name was announced. Mob storms yoga day event in Maldives [An angry mob on Tuesday stormed the Maldives national football stadium]( and attacked participants at the ‘Yoga Day’ event organised by the Indian High Commission and the Maldivian government. The country’s police force soon arrived and tackled the mob, allowing the event to resume, Male-based officials said. Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih termed it a matter of “serious concern”. Soon after the incident, he said in a tweet: “An investigation has been launched by @PoliceMv into the incident that happened this morning at Galolhu stadium. This is being treated as a matter of serious concern and those responsible will be swiftly brought before the law.” The Government of Maldives “strongly condemned” the incident. “Such malicious acts of violence aimed at disrupting public safety and undermining security of individuals and the diplomatic corps will not be tolerated,” the Indian Ocean island nation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Video footage of the incident captured by Maldivian media showed angry men, carrying poles and flags, raging towards participants seated on the ground on yoga mats, and trying to attack them. The Maldives Police Service said it traced the items used by the attackers to the office of the Opposition Progressive Party of the Maldives, led by former President Abdulla Yameen, who is currently spearheading an ‘India Out’ campaign. “As of now, the evidence indicates that the demonstrators were using items taken from the office of the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM),” the police said in a statement. The perpetrators had “sought to incite fear by forcefully entering, destroying property, and attempting to assault participants of the event,” said the police, after taking six men into custody in connection with the incident. In a tweet on Tuesday, the Maldives police also sought citizens’ assistance, by way of any evidence or information pertaining to the incident. Prior to the event, authorities noticed messages on social media deriding the ‘Yoga Day’ event. The messages claimed yoga was a Hindu mode of worship and urged people of the Islamic country to stay away from the practice. Around 150 people, including many Maldivian citizens, diplomats, and senior government officials were present at the venue on Tuesday morning, according to sources in Male. No one was seriously hurt in the attack by the mobs, they said. The ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) “unequivocally condemned” the “violent attack”. “These types of egregious and violent acts have no place in a peaceful democratic society such as ours,” the party said in a statement, which noted that the Maldives has been marking ‘World Yoga Day’ since 2015. The Maldives was among the 177 countries that co-sponsored a resolution at the United Nations in 2014, declaring June 21 as the ‘International Day of Yoga’. Sri Lanka’s Parliament sessions curbed as fuel crisis bites [Sri Lanka’s Parliament sessions will be restricted to two days this week instead of four days]( amid the current fuel supply crisis in the country, the leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardena said on Tuesday. The island nation, home to around 22 million people, is currently facing its worst economic crisis in more than 70 years. Sri Lanka’s economy is experiencing extreme fuel shortages, soaring food prices and a lack of medicines. “In view of the current fuel supplies crisis we have decided to limit the parliamentary sessions for today and tomorrow,” Gunawardena announced. When Parliament met this morning, the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya party and the Marxist National People’s Power party said they were boycotting the sessions to protest the Government’s inaction to tackle the current economic crisis. SJB leader Sajith Premadasa said since the government lacked a strategy to tackle the crisis there was little use in spending time in Parliament. “We see no plan on the part of the government to solve the current economic and fuel shortages issue,” Anura Kumara Dissanayake, NPP leader said. He said the fuel queues have lengthened since the new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed in mid-May. At the start of today’s session Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene said the main opposition’s proposal on the 21st Amendment to the Constitution has been deemed to require a national referendum for most of its provisions which are inconsistent with the Constitution. The Speaker was reading the determination he received from the Supreme Court. Sri Lankan Cabinet on Monday approved the 21st Amendment to the Constitution aimed at empowering Parliament over the executive president. The 21st Amendment is expected to annul the 20A to the Constitution, which gives unfettered powers to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after abolishing the 19th Amendment that strengthened Parliament. Sri Lanka is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an economic programme that could be supported by the global lender’s lending arrangement for the country which is seeking to find $6 billion to keep it afloat for the next six months. The IMF, however, has placed a number of conditions in order to agree to a bailout package. The nearly bankrupt country, with an acute foreign currency crisis that resulted in foreign debt default, announced in April that it is suspending nearly $7 billion foreign debt repayment due for this year out of about $25 billion due through 2026. Sri Lanka's total foreign debt stands at $51 billion. The crisis has forced Sri Lankans to wait in lines lasting hours outside stores to buy fuel and cooking gas. In Brief [Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the annual summit of the five-nation grouping BRICS]( on June 23 and 24 following an invitation by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Tuesday. China is hosting the summit in its capacity as its chair of the grouping for the current year. The BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) brings together five of the largest developing countries in the world, representing 41 per cent of the global population, 24% of the global GDP and 16 per cent of the global trade. 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