Amit Shah vs Uddhav Thackeray over impeachment motion against judge over deepam row

A major political confrontation has erupted in Maharashtra between Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Union Home Minister Amit Shah over a judicial impeachment motion.

The flashpoint is the move by the opposition INDIA bloc to impeach Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madras High Court. The judge's controversial order directed the traditional lighting of a lamp (Karthigai Deepam) at a sacred spot near a dargah.

Amit Shah framed this motion as a dangerous precedent, the first time since independence that a judge faces impeachment purely for "vote bank politics." He specifically called out Thackeray for aligning with this "appeasement" strategy.

Thackeray launched a furious counterattack, asserting that the BJP, RSS and Amit Shah have no moral standing to lecture him on Hindutva.

He threw down a challenge to Shah, demanding whether he would ask for the resignation of minister Kiren Rijiju over comments related to beef, dismissing the BJP's sudden focus on Vande Mataram as hollow tokenism ("One Day Mataram"). Thackeray also accused the BJP of double standards regarding the Palghar sadhu lynching case.

The rift widened as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde tore into Thackeray, branding him a "chameleon" for his political inconsistency. Shinde argued that by supporting the impeachment of a judge whose order protected a religious tradition, Thackeray had forfeited any right to critique the Hindutva of Modi or Shah.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis cemented the BJP's attack with a pointed tweet, suggesting Thackeray has lost his political soul.

"What were you and what have you become?" he tweeted.

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