Mumbai: In a fresh attack on Sachin Tendulkar, the Shiv Sena has said the master blaster does not play for India but for the BCCI.
Part MP Sanjay Raut, whose brother Sunil Raut is wanted in connection with the attacks on IBN offices in Mumbai and Pune last week, has also said that Sunil Gavaskar was a greater Marathi than Tendulkar, who he claimed has helped no one. Continue reading below
Writing in the party mouthpiece Saamna, Sanjay Raut said, "Sachin may be a big cricketer, but he is not bigger than Maharashtra. Sachin has not sacrificed his life for the country like Lokmanya Tilak, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru.
"He's never helped any other Marathi players, even friends like Vinod Kambli, unlike Sunil Gavaskar who has helped several Maharashtrian players. Sachin plays for the BCCI and not for India."
Raut is the very MP who justified the attacks on IBN network offices saying that it was spontaneous.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP and BCCI's Finance Committee chairman Rajeev Shukla ridiculed Shiv Sena's latest criticism, saying the party was only harming its own image by criticising the revered cricketer.
Shukla ridiculed the latest attack, saying, "Since Thackeray has restrained himself from writing anything against Sachin Tendulkar, his newspaper's editor Sanjay Raut, who is also my colleague in Rajya Sabha, has started."
"I think he should realise that by criticising Tendulkar, he is only harming his own party. Whatever he says against Tendulkar will reduce his party's votebank in Maharashtra because no Maharashtrian is liking what they are saying," he said.
"Drawing parallels between Gavaskar and Tendulkar or pitching him against Kambli or saying that he hasn't contributed anything to Maharashtra, I don't think anybody will subscribe to this kind of argument," Shukla added.
The BCCI, however, distanced itself from Shukla's comments and said the views expressed were his own.
"Mr Shashank Manohar, the President of the BCCI, has clarified that Mr Rajeev Shukla has reacted to the comments made by the Shiv Sena on Sachin Tendulkar, in his individual capacity, and not on behalf of the BCCI," Board secretary N Srinivasan said in a statement.
(With inputs from PTI)
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