Mumbai: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over a host of issues, including the Ram temple, Rafale deal and its ally’s dismal Assembly poll results, in his Pandharpur rally on Monday. Speaking in Marathi, Mr Thackeray even used the same jibe that the Congress often uses to criticise the Prime Minister.
Addressing a huge crowd at Pandharpur, Mr Thackeray said, “Halli paharekarich chorya karaylaa laagale aahet (Nowadays, security guards are the ones committing thefts.” Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been repeatedly hurling the “chowkidar chor hai” (the guard is a thief) jibe at Mr Modi.
Taking potshots at the government over the Rafale scam, Mr Thackeray said, “I don’t know how the court has given the government a clean chit in this. You know, nowadays watchmen have become thieves. In the procurement of planes, they have pulled off a scam. On the one hand, this government is refusing to raise the pay scale of soldiers while on the other, they carried out this scam.”
Mr Thackeray was in Pandharpur, Solapur on Monday to carry out a puja of Lord Vitthal.
On temple issue, he said, “I have raised this issue for the elections. I am not one of those people who hide their intentions. I want to ask the BJP when it will build the Ram Mandir. Now, they are saying that the case is in court. I want to ask them that when they mobilised people in 1992 to bring down the mosque, that time too the case was in court. You did that and then came to power. You enjoyed power but Ram is still to get his place.”
