Ram temple symbol of Sena's sacrifice: Thackeray

The Ram temple at Ayodhya is a symbol of Sena's sacrifice for Hindutva and the party would fulfil the promise of constructing it fully, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has said."The Ram temple is a symbol of Sena's sacrifice for Hindutva," an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana said on Thursday. Thackeray is the newspaper's editor.

Crediting Sena for bringing down the Masjid, Thackeray said, "Kothari brothers, who demolished the domes of Masjid and hosted a saffron flag there were Shiv Sainiks and I am proud of them."

Referring to Samajwadi Party Memeber of Legislative Assembly Abu Asim Azmi's announcement to rebuild Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, Thackeray said, "if someone is dreaming of rebuilding Babri Masjid, Sena has the power to shatter those dreams." Thackeray described the assault on Azmi in Maharashtra Assembly by MLAs belonging to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena as a "mild slap".

Azmi was attacked for taking oath in Hindi, ignoring a warning by Raj to take the oath in Marathi. Thackeray indicated that taking up the Hindutva issue would not be at the cost of the Marathi manoos. "The 'sons of the soil' issue would remain in Maharashtra, but when the country faces threat from Islam, Hindus must stand up," he said.

"A fundamentalist Muslim is the biggest threat to the country and we need to fight against it. Except some like Salim Khan, Javed Akhtar, Mukhtar Abbas and Farooq Abdullah, the rest are trying to destroy our country," he said.