Addressing party workers at a rally in Mumbai, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray alleged that the media used Sridevi’s death as an excuse to divert attention from the alleged multi crore PNB scam. While he said she was a good actress, he questioned her contribution to nation for her body to be wrapped in the tricolour. Accusing the media of covering her funeral extensively on behest of the government to divert attention from the multi crore Nirav Modi-PNB scam, Thackeray said that the media is under tremendous pressure from the government.

Nirav Modi was the talk of the town, then issue of Sridevi came in. This was brought to change the issue. When a person like Sridevi dies, you wrap her in Tri-color & you say you did that because she was a Padma Shri. It was all fault of the Maharashtra government: Raj Thackeray pic.twitter.com/b8z8U17559 — ANI (@ANI) March 19, 2018

Launching an attack on Prime Minister Modi, Thackeray urged the opposition to come together for a Modi-free India. Calling demonetisation biggest scam ever since 1947, he even said that the films like ‘Toilet Ek Prem Katha’ and ‘Padman’ are covert propaganda for government schemes. He even took potshots at Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for singing songs and not addressing problems faced by people of Maharashtra.

This is not the first time Raj Thackeray has put out wild conspiracy theories. Earlier, he had teamed up with Sharad Pawar to float a conspiracy theory that the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train is a trick by embittered Gujaratis to reclaim Mumbai after losing Mumbai to Maharashtra in 1960.