Row over BJP leader ‘laughing at deaths’ in Mumbai infra mishaps, Raj Thackeray wants Fadnavis to act

MAharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj william makepeace thackeray on sabbatum launched a tart assail on Chief government minister Devendra Fadnavis, accusing him of remaining silent over the controversy surrounding BJP Mumbai president Ameet Satam's viral video in which Satam is laughing allegedly over two recent deaths in Mumbai. Raj Thackeray said inaction against Satam would erode Maharashtra's political culture.In an open letter addressed to Fadnavis and posted on X, Raj Thackeray said people across the country believed the BJP's central leadership had become “arrogant with power”. “… But has this contagion now spread to our state? And are you letting it spread?” he wrote, in Marathi.Drawing a contrast between Maharashtra and other states, the MNS chief said the state's politics had long been admired for its maturity and civility."But over the last few years, it's become painfully clear that you've started measuring up to some of those backward-thinking states up north," he said.Without naming Satam directly, Raj Thackeray referred to the recent controversy over the BJP leader's remarks in the wake of two civic tragedies in Mumbai. "One of your MLAs and office-bearers laughs gleefully over people's deaths, and not a single step is taken against him," he said, invoking the oft-quoted maxim: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” “No one feels any regret, no remorse... And in all this, you don't utter a single word, which is why everyone has become utterly shameless,” he added. Raj Thackeray also questioned Fadnavis' own image as a sensitive leader.“Devendra Fadnavis was seen as a cultured Chief Minister, a sensitive one — that's what Maharashtra thought, and so did I. But when things like this happen and you express no regret whatsoever, it forces one to question your very sensitivity,” he wrote.Recalling what he described as a different political tradition in the state, Raj Thackeray said leaders across party lines had not shielded colleagues merely because they belonged to the same political camp. “I've been active in politics for the last 37 years. Whenever a leader in Maharashtra slipped up or made a mistake, the state's leaders at the time never covered for him just because he was one of their own. Be it Balasaheb, Pawar Saheb, Pramodji, or anyone else — for that reason, Maharashtra's politics had a distinct image across the country.”He accused the BJP government of doing precisely the opposite today. “Your ministers make utterly absurd statements every day, and you say nothing about it. Your other leaders openly flaunt their insensitivity, and you say nothing to them,” he said, adding that had the Chief Minister intervened earlier, “they wouldn't have had the guts to repeat those mistakes”.Calling for “decisive action”, Raj Thackeray said, "In truth, you should be demanding resignations from those behaving so shamelessly."He added, "Show once that Fadnavis cracks down hard on those acting crazy, and everyone will fall in line."What's the row?The remarks come amid a political storm over a viral video showing Satam laughing while referring to two recent deaths in Mumbai — an 11-year-old boy who was killed after a tree fell on his school bus and a 60-year-old man who died after falling into an uncovered manhole during the monsoon.Opposition parties, including Shiv Sena (UBT), accused Satam of making light of the tragedies and cited the video as evidence of insensitivity within the ruling dispensation. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi had alleged that the incidents amounted to “murders due to negligence” and questioned the government's accountability.Satam clarifiesSatam, however, has rejected the allegations, saying the viral clip was taken out of context.He has maintained that he was referring to the two incidents because he had raised them on successive days in the legislature and that his smile was in response to an unrelated exchange with another legislator, not the deaths themselves.The CM has not publicly responded.