The Shiv Sena on Wednesday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that the Centre’s notification on the monitoring of computers was a sign of his “restlessness” to retain power. In a remark meant to mock Opposition parties, Modi had on December 24 said power is like “oxygen for some people” and politicians nowadays get restless if they stay out of it for even “two or five years”.

In an editorial titled “Is your oxygen over?” in the party mouthpiece Saamana, the BJP ally criticised Modi’s remark, and asked who he was referring to by “some people”. The editorial said those who were unable to bring “achche din [good days]” despite being in power for so long are now afraid of being in the Opposition. “Achche din” was the Bharatiya Janata Party’s election campaign slogan in 2014.

The Shiv Sena said Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya and veteran BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani in politics are in exile, while others are reaping fruits of the “oxygen of power”. “Deciding to send someone to exile is the politics of power,” the Sena added. “Those who are in power are afraid of their own people. Even the Mughal sultans used to jail their fathers after ascending the throne.”

The editorial also said, in an apparent reference to the BJP: “In order to ensure the oxygen supply of power, hooligans and thieves are purified. To win polls, criminals are made ‘Valmiki’ [the sage who wrote Ramayana]. In the end, power is irresistible.”

On Monday, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on Monday had attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale jet deal, labelling him a thief. The two parties are in alliance in Maharashtra but their relations have soured in recent months.