The Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday defended his party’s MP who force-fed a Muslim employee in Delhi’s Maharashtra Sadan, who was observing Ramzan fast, by claiming that expressing discontent against the poor quality of services is not a crime.

“We are exposing the corruption in Maharashtra Sadan. Expressing our discontent over the poor quality of services and corruption cannot be termed as a crime,” he said in Nasik in a press conference. Mr. Thackeray reiterated that his party is working to propagate Hindutva but is not anti-Muslim.

Earlier in the day, the party mouthpiece Saamana in its editorial said that the media and political parties are victimizing the party over a roti, but ignoring a rapist in Bengaluru’s school who was a Muslim.

“A maulavi raped a ten-year old inside a masjid in Afghanistan during Ramzan. In a recent incident in Bengaluru, a Muslim teacher raped a schoolgirl. Media and selfish politicians have nothing to say over it,” said the editorial.

The editorial added that the behaviour of the media and political parties show that they have issues with a chapati, but not over rapes.

The Sena claimed that Maharashtra’s politicians are trying to give a political and communal turn to the incidents. “The contractor’s name was not printed on his forehead. After he turned out to be a Muslim, the news stories were planted against the Shiv Sena from Delhi’s Maharashtra Sadan and Mumbai’s Mantralaya,” said the editorial.

It further said that those who are purposely painting the incident in a communal colour are doing it to suppress the corruption in Maharashtra Sadan. “Shiv Sena respects every religion. We do not even interfere, till the time anybody boasts about the religion. It’s an individual’s issue. But we won’t keep quiet if someone is going to defame us using religion,” the editorial said.

The editorial warned the political parties that the Shiv Sena is all set to win the state’s upcoming assembly election and those who are using the communal card to hide their corruption should not forget this fact.