Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), in a sharply worded editorial published on Tuesday, 16 June in its party mouthpiece Saamana, alleged an alarming erosion of India's democratic and political systems — pointing to engineered defections, alleged destruction of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), institutional inaction, and manufactured controversies as evidence of what it called an authoritarian drift.

Key Allegations in the Editorial

The Thackeray camp argued that television channels and newspapers have been consumed by coverage of defecting legislators, while the reported burning of four thousand EVMs drew virtually no debate on news platforms. The editorial contended that this pattern — amplifying trivial controversies while suppressing substantive ones — mirrors tactics used by dictatorial regimes globally to divert public attention from fundamental issues.

The party also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of operating as a 'thief market of rumours', alleging that the claim of Prime Minister Narendra Modi being India's longest-serving Prime Minister was a fabricated talking point, while what it described as the embezzlement of ₹5 crore from the Ayodhya Ram Temple fund went unaddressed. NationPress could not independently verify the embezzlement claim.

Criticism Over Sailors' Deaths and Foreign Tour

The editorial also criticised Prime Minister Modi for allegedly failing to publicly mourn the deaths of three Indian sailors killed in what it described as a US attack, while departing on a tour of France. The party alleged the sailors' remains were lying at a port in Oman, calling the situation a 'desecration of the mortal remains of Indian citizens.' NationPress has not independently confirmed the specifics of this incident.

Defections, Anti-Defection Law, and 'Operation Tiger'

Shiv Sena (UBT) alleged that the BJP has been systematically poaching legislators from opposition parties, with particular focus on the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) founded by Mamata Banerjee. The editorial claimed the BJP and its allies had begun openly boasting about an operation they called 'Operation Tiger', aimed at breaking the TMC and subsequently targeting Shiv Sena again.

The party further alleged that Lok Sabha and state Assembly Speakers were effectively rendering the Tenth Schedule — India's anti-defection law — inoperative, by openly facilitating defectors seeking recognition. It claimed the Election Commission of India (ECI) and even the Supreme Court appeared to be functioning as protectors of political defection rather than guardians of constitutional order — an allegation that reflects the party's political position and has not been substantiated by any judicial or official finding.

Warning of Presidential System and End of Elections

The editorial's most pointed warning centred on what it described as the BJP's long-term agenda: ending multi-party democracy, altering the Constitution, and installing a presidential system of governance. 'They aim to wipe out regional parties across states and destroy the country's diverse political culture — and the process has already begun,' the editorial stated.

The Thackeray camp also accused the government of maintaining 'calculated silence' on domestic crises including inflation, exam paper leaks, rising unemployment, a falling rupee, and atrocities against women, arguing that engineered political defections were being used as a smokescreen for these failures.

Context and What Comes Next

This editorial comes amid an ongoing period of political turbulence in Maharashtra and nationally, with multiple opposition parties alleging that the ruling dispensation is using institutional levers to weaken political rivals. Shiv Sena (UBT) itself emerged from a split in the original Shiv Sena in 2022, when a faction led by Eknath Shinde broke away and subsequently aligned with the BJP. The Thackeray faction has consistently challenged the legitimacy of that split in courts. The BJP has not formally responded to the specific claims made in this editorial.