File photo of Bal Thackeray
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday criticised Shiv Sena over the lead report in the saffron party's mouthpiece 'Saamana', which quotes the party supremo Bal Thackeray as appealing to Hindus to disrupt the India-Pakistan cricket matches, and said Mr Thackeray often did not know what was being published in his name.
"Shiv Sena is politicising cricket in the name of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Bal Thackeray is not aware of the editorials published in his name," NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said in Mumbai.
Mr Malik said that just after the Kargil war of 1999, former Pakistan cricketer Javed Miandad had visited Mr Thackeray at his residence 'Matoshree' in Mumbai, where "Uddhav and Raj (Thackeray) were waiting at the gate to welcome Miandad".
It was to Mr Miandad's son that fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim's daughter was married, Mr Malik noted, adding that Shiv Sena was exhibiting "a double standard".
Referring to Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre's recent statement that NCP was party of "goons", Mr Malik said if it was the case, people would not have voted the Sharad Pawar-led party to power in four civic bodies across four districts.