Describing the United Progressive Alliance victory in the trust vote as an outcome of "money power of industrialists," the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has lambasted the Left for propping up Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati for the prime minister's post.
"In its desperation to topple the Manmohan Singh government, the Left saddled Mayawati on the prime ministerial horse as their candidate without realising that this 'horse' is more dangerous than the horse-traders", Thackeray commented in the editorial published in the party newspaper Saamna on Wednesday.
The editorial said, "By raising a dream vision of prime ministership before Mayawati, the Left was making a historical blunder. Congress needs to be vanquished, but using the BSP chief towards that end amounts to administering a medicine that is more damaging than the disease."
The Left parties would not mind India becoming a "slave of China" but would not tolerate the country becoming friendly with America, he accused.
"But what they have done in Nandigram needs to be condemned more than what President Bush did in Iraq," Thackeray said.
"The events witnessed in Parliament during the passage of trust vote also showed that those who talk of principles and morality are the ones who are purchased first. The UPA survival is the result of unlimited power and the money bags loosened by industrialists. This may have saved the government, but ruined the prestige of India's parliamentary democracy," he remarked.
"Manmohan Singh was a gentleman who is surrounded by 'Duryodhanas' of the Mahabharata," Thackeray said.
The Sena chief, however, had a pat for Dr Singh saying although he was dubbed as the 'weakest prime minster' by the opposition leaders, he came back strongly in the floor test.
The editorial did not make any mention of the Sena MP Dinge Patil who abstained from voting, but said a BJP MP K L Diler "took ill suddenly" and got himself admitted on the eve of the crucial vote.
"When the stakes are high MPs fall sick. This is a disease of greed and selfishness that is plaguing the nation," Thackeray said.