Shiv Sena (UBT) claimed that the Wagner group in India, a reference to opposition groups, will topple the Narendra Modi government through the ballot box by using the path of non-violence.
A startling event occurred last week when Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, called for an armed uprising and asserted that his forces controlled the military facilities in Rostov-on-Don, a city in southern Russia. Additionally, it began its march to Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the rebellion a betrayal and an act of treason. Later, Prigozhin said he has ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on Moscow and retreat to their field camps in Ukraine to avoid shedding Russian blood, following negotiations carried out by the Belarusian president.
An editorial in the Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana drew a parallel between Wagner mercenary group’s revolt against Russian President Putin and the meeting of opposition parties in Patna last week.
The editorial in Saamana said the Wagner group has shown dictatorship can be challenged. Be it Modi or Putin, they have to face rebellion. The government in India will be dislodged by a non-violent Wagner and that route will be through the ballot box, it claimed. Like Putin, Modi has to go, but in a democratic manner, it said.
The Wagner group came together in Patna as a protector of democracy, the Marathi daily said, referring to the conclave of the opposition parties in Bihar capital last week. It further said the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will not decide the results in 2024, but people will.
If there is an EVM scam, then there will be a Manipur-like situation in the country, such is the anger among people against the government, the editorial claimed. The editorial also claimed the BJP has kept many people, like Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s group, as its protector, and tomorrow the same people will stab them.