Thackeray backs Advani's remarks on 'illegitimate' govt

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who had criticised senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani for his controversial blog, on Saturday supported him on the 'illegitimate' United Progressive Alliance government comment.

"In democracy, some words may have been termed unparliamentary and Advani had to swallow them, but the truth won't be suppressed because of that," Thackeray said in an editorial in party mouthpiece, Saamana.

"It may have been a slip of tongue but the bitter truth came out of Advani's mouth," Thackeray said. It is not as if there was a need (for Advani) to swallow those words later, he added.

 Thackeray lauded Advani's speech on the Assam issue, daying illegal immigration was encouraged by the Congress for vote-bank politics and is to blame for the violence in that state.

 The UPA-II government was illegitimate, Thackeray said, adding it was using the Central Bureau of Investigation illegally.

 Earlier this week, in hard-hitting comments, Thackeray asserted that Advani's musings on the outcome of the 2014 polls in his blog was "demoralising" for the opposition National Democratic Alliance and likened the assessment to an army general saying before a war that there is no guarantee on the outcome.

"This is like a general saying before a war that there is no guarantee on the outcome and demoralising the entire army," Thackeray had said in Saamana.