mumbai

Updated: Mar 19, 2018 11:41 IST

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Sunday claimed that in the coming months, communal riots will be engineered in the country around the issue of Ram Temple.

While addressing a rally at Shivaji Park, Thackeray alleged that some people are hatching a conspiracy to stir communal riots in India to win the next elections. “In the next few months, there will be Hindu-Muslim riots. The main cause will be the Ram Temple. The case before the Supreme Court is being fast tracked to win the election. According to my information, some people are holding talks with Muslim bodies on rioting immediately after the Ram temple issue is resolved,” he said. He slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said if the temple is going to be an election issue, then let it be built a year later.

Lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Thackeray said the government is not acting in the interest of the nation. In his speech that lasted over an hour, Thackeray equated the central government with Hitler’s. According to him, despite Modi’s foreign visits, he failed to get investment for the country. “Some time ago (Amit) Shah said that selling pakodas (fritters) is also a profession. Then did Modi visit all these countries to get flour for these pakodas? He has not managed to even one rupee of investment,” Thackeray said.

Questioning the need for the bullet train project that will cost the exchequer Rs1.10lakh crore, he said, “Like Maharashtra, the people of Gujarat also do not want a bullet train. Maharashtra, which has a debt of over Rs4lakh crore will borrow just because of the PM’s stubbornness.” He also targeted Modi for disallowing the proposed international financial services centre in Mumbai. “It would have generated 70,000 to 80,000 jobs for people in the state. But he promoted the one in Gujarat,” he said. Thackeray said people of the state are stuck with caste politics which is not healthy. To woo the Marathi voters, he said it is time for them to realise that a conspiracy is being hatched to grab land from original land owners and hand it over to outsiders in the name of infrastructure projects. He also appealed to Konkan farmers to not spare the land for the proposed Ratnagiri refinery project.

Thackeray said the coverage on actress Sridevi’s death was an attempt to divert the attention from the Nirav Modi scandal. “Why wasn’t Judge Loya’s death discussed in the media at a similar length even though it too was suspicious?” he said.

Thackeray also alleged that the government of India is making “adjustmemts” with the country’s most wanted man Dawood Ibrahim. “According to my information, Dawood wants to come to India and spend his last days in the country. The government is making adjustments with him. Is this how a government is run?” he said.