Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday to either apologise for Union Minister Amit Shah’s comments on Dr B R Ambedkar, or quit his post.

Incidentally, Thackeray’s demand has come a day after he met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis signalling his ‘return to Hindutva’, especially after he also urged the BJP to confer the Bharat Ratna on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

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On Wednesday in Nagpur, Thackeray played the tape recording of Amit Shah’s comments which have sparked a political storm in Maharashtra and other parts of the country, especially among Dalits and Ambedkarites. Shah reportedly said, “Rather than chanting Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, if you chant the name of God, you will get heaven in seven births”.

“He (Shah) would have never dared to say any such a thing unless he was prodded by the RSS-BJP,” Thackeray said, demanding to know if PM Modi and other ministers from Maharashtra in the central government agreed with what Shah said. “Maharashtra has given two great sons to the world. One is Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the other is Dr Ambedkar, who gave us the Constitution.

We will not tolerate any kind of insults to them,” Thackeray said, adding that PM Modi and Amit Shah must apologise to the nation or quit. Thackeray alleged that the BJP has been denigrating Maharashtra’s icons like icons like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Dr B R Ambedkar, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule, ever since it came to power.

Meanwhile, other Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders like Sharad Pawar-led (NCP) general secretary Jitendra Awhad, Nitin Raut of the Congress and Thackeray-led Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi as well as Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut tore into BJP and Shah for their “utter contempt for Dr Ambedkar and the Constitution”.