Mumbai: “Hindus are naive and gullible, but they are not stupid. If someone is looting temples by taking advantage of our Hindutva, no Hindu will forgive them now,” said Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday evening as he kicked off his party’s ‘Ram Raksha Andolan’ over the alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram temple at Ayodhya.Drenched in his saffron kurta as he led the protest in front of the Hanuman temple at Dadar Kabutarkhana, Thackeray warned: “This (protest) is a spark that has been lit in the rain…They (BJP) stole our party, they stole Lord Rama’s bow and arrow from us. But today we have the torch with which Hanuman had burnt Lanka…We will not sit down without burning Lanka of your injustice.” Several priests from Ayodhya too joined the protest.Asserting that “Ram belongs to everyone”, Thackeray claimed that people want a BJP-free Ram. He also demanded an independent probe into the alleged misappropriation of donations at the Ayodhya temple “or else everyone involved will get a clean chit in four days”.Responding to the ‘Ram Raksha’ protest, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said he was happy that Thackeray finally remembered Ram. “Our only expectation was that he should remember Ram. He had left the path of Ram, which is why his party went down the drain. If he follows the path of Ram, it will be good for him. Not just today, but he should recite Ram Raksha every day,” Fadnavis said.
