Bal Thackeray Warns Tendulkar Against Entering Political Battles

Wonder what took Shiv Sena so long to respond? Finally Bal Thackeray opened up about Sachin Tendulkar’s remarks that Mumbai belonged to India and all Indians and it was, as usual, not pretty.

Snubbing the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for their cause for the “Marathi Manoos”, Tendulkar had said, “Mumbai belongs to India. That is how I look at it. And I am a Maharashtrian and I am extremely proud of that but I am
an Indian first.”
Read what Thackeray had to say in the Shiv Sena voice, Saamna, in an open letter to the cricket maestro who completed twenty years in international cricket.
Some excerpts:
To Sachin Tendulkar, “You are free to hit fours and sixers on the cricket field, but keep off the political pitch.”
“Nobody grudges you all this (fame, money, adulation), in fact it makes them feel proud. But when you speak politics like this you tear the hearts of Maharashtrians.”
“With that one statement (about Mumbai), you became ‘run out’ in the pitch of Marathi minds.”
“Do cricketers (like you) ever bother about the problems confronting the country, the inflation, slums proliferation in Mumbai, the influx of people from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bangladeshi Muslims?” adding, “when Mumbai was won for Maharashtra ‘with a lot of struggle and the supreme sacrifice of 105 people, Tendulkar was not even born.”
All this was issued as a part of “friendly advice” with the interest to safeguard Tendulkar’s “well being” by the Sena Supremo!

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