Sachin belongs to the entire world - Thackeray

Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackery today showered praise on Sachin Tendulkar and said that the master blaster is an exemplary ambassador for the game of cricket and the entire cricketing fraternity identifies with him. "Legends like Sachin should not be confined to narrow claims of nationhood," the aging patriarch said, "While India is proud of him, connoisseurs of cricket the world over admire him and draw inspiration from him. Past and present players from all cricketing nations have extolled him as a genius who brought glory to the game. As such he is beyond narrow national affiliations and well and truly belongs to the worldwide cricket community"

All social groups and political parties praised Bal Thackeray's mature stand. However the response of Shiv Sena's political ally BJP was more muted. One BJP spokesperson said, "Balasaheb is a world citizen. A visionary. As such it is natural for him to make such noble statements. But we must also remember to put the nation first. Take Kashmir for example. All we ask of our Muslim brothers is that if they want to remain in India they should put India first and their religion second. That's all. If they fail to do that we will be forced by our loyalty to Bharat Mata to rape their daughters and slit out their unborn foetuses, like we did in Gujarat in 2001. You know, in those massacres that never really took place and were concocted by pseudo-secularists to malign Gujarat". "Remember, Hindus are by definition secular, they attack only when provoked, and any insult to their character will not be tolerated" the leader trailed off as he ran towards a urinating cow to partake of the nectar.