Thackeray, who joined hands with the Congress in 2019 after parting ways with the Bharatiya Janata Party, took part in a Congress event for the first time. He also wore a Congress scarf for a brief time.
The programme was also attended by NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Pawar said it was unfortunate that Prime Minister Narendra Modi harbours a grudge against the Nehru-Gandhi family whose four generations have toiled for the country.
“No one can erase the contributions of (former prime minister Jawaharlal) Nehru and his family from the country’s contribution,” Pawar said.
Describing Rajiv Gandhi as a civilised man, Thackeray said despite having a brute majority of more than 400 seats in 1984, he brought in legislation to strengthen the Panchayati Raj and decentralise power. He said Rajiv Gandhi did not put his photo on inoculation certificates despite carrying out vaccination programmes at such a large scale, in an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was criticised for having his images on COVID-19 vaccine certificates. “Shiv Sena and Congress were bitter opponents, but they never acted with vindictiveness towards each other,” Thackeray said.
“Sena chief Bal Thackeray harshly criticised Rajiv Gandhi (when he was PM) but at no point I recall CBI, ED or Income Tax knocking on the doors of Shiv Sena leaders,” he said, taking a veiled swipe at the BJP-led Union government.
Opposition often accuses the Narendra Modi government of misusing Central investigation agencies against its political opponents.
Thackeray said Rajiv Gandhi never shied away from tackling challenges and took on them boldly, referring to the steps the former prime minister had initiated to deal with the militancy in Punjab and northeast India.
“But (now the attitude is) let Manipur and Kashmir burn,” he said.
Thackeray also accused the BJP of resorting to “power jihad”.
The Opposition managed to reduce the BJP-led alliance’s strength in the Lok Sabha in the general elections, he said and called for the defeat of the ruling Mahayuti in the coming assembly elections in Maharashtra.
The BJP accused him of abandoning Hindutva for the sake of aligning with the Congress even though the saffron party didn’t mind joining hands with JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu (who have different ideologies), Thackeray said.
