Narendra Modi is taking same decisions as Congress: Raj Thackeray

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray
Speaking at the Shivaji Park grounds after seven years, Raj Thackeray scoffed at Modi’s foreign tours, the ‘Acche Din’ slogan and promise to get back black money from abroad.

Lashing out at the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre and the BJP-Shiv Sena dispensation in Maharashtra, MNS chief Raj Thackeray said that the BJP and RSS were using the nationalism and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' debates as tactics to divert attention from their failures.

Positioning himself as the natural heir to his late uncle and Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, Raj — who was speaking at his party’s Gudi Padwa rally on Friday — accused the Sena of lacking confidence and trying to act like the opposition while being in power.

Speaking at the Shivaji Park grounds after seven years, Raj also tried to shore his diminished support base before the 2017 BMC polls by rejecting accusations they had not taken their agitations to their logical end. Attacking Fadnavis, Raj opposed the demands for creating separate states of Vidarbha and Marathwada and pointed to deepening agrarian distress and farmer suicides in Maharashtra.

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He also raised his pet anti-outsider plank — accusing migrants from northern states of snatching jobs meant for locals and straining civic infrastructure. “(Modi) changed after becoming the Prime Minister. What happened suddenly? You are taking the same decisions as the Congress. What is the difference between you and them,” questioned Raj, while scoffing at Modi’s foreign tours, the ‘Acche Din’ slogan and promise to get back black money from abroad.

“You promised a miracle... the people are abusing the BJP because these were not fulfilled,” Raj said, alleging that hence, the RSS was being used to raise the nationalism bogey to gloss over these failures and “distribute certificates of patriotism.” Moreover, the BJP was also in power in Kashmir with the pro-separatist PDP.

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Noting that 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' was a slogan given out only on occasions, he accused the Hindu right-wing of trying to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims. “This 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram' is childish. Do you have the guts to touch the crux of the matter?” Raj asked, why the “dens of traitors” in cities like Pune and Mumbai were not destroyed.

He pointed out that not just perpetrators of bomb blasts but also those who indulged in corruption and siphoning off public funds were also anti-national.

He also accused the BJP of giving up on the Ram Mandir agitation which it once used to come to power and the Sena for going soft on its opposition to the Jaitapur nuclear power project.

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