MUMBAI - Lashing out at the Maharashtra government for deciding to name the new Bandra Worli Sea Link after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said Thursday that “the country is not the fiefdom of the Gandhi family”.

In a scathing editorial in the party mouthpiece ‘Saamna’, the ailing Thackeray criticized Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar for proposing Rajiv’s name just because he (Rajiv) was born in Mumbai.

Pointing out that the BWSL cost had escalated from Rs.4 billion to Rs.16 billion, the editorial alleged that the “cream of corruption is visible all the way from Mumbai to Pune”.

“That is the reason a helpless Pawar had proposed the name of Bofors-fame Rajiv Gandhi for this corruption-ridden project, and linked it to Rajiv being a son-of-the-soil,” Thackeray said.

Thackeray’s anger stems from the June 30 proposal mooted by Pawar to name the BWSL after Rajiv, which was promptly accepted by Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.

Ridiculing the ’son-of-the-soil’ theory, Thackeray said that there are thousands of illegal Bangladeshi Muslims living in Mumbai.

“Many great persons have been born in Maharashtra in different walks of life. What prevented Pawar from suggesting any of their names? Would Pawar accept the Bangladeshis as sons-of-the-soil and rename some project in his traditional constituency, Baramati after some Bangladeshi Muslim?” he demanded.

Explaining how the BWSL goes past the monument to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar at Dadar, Thackeray wondered how Pawar could not suggest the name of the Father of the Indian Constitution, “whose name he invokes to get Dalit votes”.

He reiterated the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party’s old demand of naming the BWSL after revolutionary freedom fighter Veer Savarkar, or some other legendary Mumbaikar like Babu Genu or Mahatma Jyotiba Phule.

Thackeray accused “a helpless” Pawar of trying to return Sonia’s “favours” to the NCP, which despite recent electoral reverses, was awarded ‘creamy’ ministries like agriculture and civil aviation.

“However, if Rajiv Gandhi was such a great figure, then why did Pawar betray his widow Sonia in 1999 to walk out of Congress? It is the Maratha leaders like Pawar, Chavan and Vilasrao Deshmukh who have mortgaged Maharashtra’s pride at the feet of Sonia. The people of the state will not forget it..” the editorial noted.