Modi rule worse than previous UPA govt: Raj Thackeray

Agencies

September 11, 2018

Mumbai, Sep 11: On a day his party supported the Congress' Bharat bandh against fuel price rise, MNS chief Raj Thackeray said the current BJP dispensation at the Centre is "worse" than the erstwhile UPA government.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) supported the national shutdown along with other political parties in the state.

Addressing reporters, Thackeray also attacked the Shiv Sena which didn't support the bandh ignoring the Congress' request.

"The BJP dispensation at the Centre is worse than previous Congress government. Within this government the Modi-Shah duo (are worse)," he said.

Thackeray, the estranged cousin of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, said the BJP's claim of the 'party with a difference' is false.

"It is the habit of the BJP to spread all kind of lies. The Maharashtra government claims that it has dug 1.20 lakh wells (to overcome water shortage) and made the state free of open defecation. These claims are false," he said.

Thackeray attacked Union Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad over his statement that prices of fuel are not in the hands of the government.

"Ravishankar Prasad says that the prices of fuel cannot be brought down. If that is so then how could the BJP government in Rajastan manage (to bring) them (down). If Prasad were right then why he and his party had been holding agitations (against fuel price hike) before 2014 polls," he asked.

He said the Narendra Modi government is levying heavy taxes on fuel to recover the losses.

Demonetisation exercise has failed and the economy is severely damaged, Thackeray said, adding that the BJP now has the sole agenda to "fetch donations and win elections".

In 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes with twin objectives of bringing out black money and clamping down on terror financing.

In its report, the RBI recently said that 99 percent of the currency in circulation at the time of note ban has returned in the banking system.

In a veiled attack on the prime minister, Thackeray said the head of the country should act like a king and not as a merchant.

On Sena's stand to not support Monday's bandh, Thackeray said, "Sena's stand is that if there works are stuck they oppose the BJP and get the work done. They have nothing to do with the suffering of the common people".

Thackeray accused the BJP government of booking MNS workers on "false charges", which he said would backfire.

Seeking to dispel perceptions about MNS's growing proximity with the Congress in view of the regional party backing the bandh, the MNS chief said the cause is more important than who has given it.

Apart from the MNS, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the the Samajwadi Party, the Peasants and Workers' Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supported the shutdown in Maharashtra.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

‘Pakistan has no moral right to question India’s military operation’: Pak Islamist lawmaker exposes own country’s hypocrisy

News Network

December 23,2025

A Pakistani lawmaker has called out the hypocrisy of his country's leadership, drawing a parallel between Islamabad's military actions against Kabul and India's 'Operation Sindoor'.

Condemning the Pakistan army, led by Asim Munir, for strikes on Afghanistan - which resulted in civilian casualties - Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman questioned the consistency of Islamabad's logic. He argued that if Pakistan's cross-border attacks are considered justified, then the country has little ground to object when India enters Pakistani territory to eliminate terrorists.

Rehman was addressing the 'Majlis-e-Ittehad-e-Ummat' conference on Monday in Karachi's Lyari. The town recently gained international attention as the setting for the Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar, which depicted the intersection of informants and operatives within the Lyari underworld.

"If you say that we attacked our enemy in Afghanistan and justify this, then India can also say that it attacked Bahawalpur, Muridke, and the headquarters of groups responsible for the attack in Kashmir," Rehman said, referring to India's retaliatory strikes. "Then how can you raise objections? The same accusations are now being levelled against Pakistan by Afghanistan. How do you justify both positions?"

The JUI-F chief's remarks specifically referenced 'Operation Sindoor'.

On May 7, Indian armed forces carried out pre-dawn missile strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba's base in Muridke.

Pak-Afghanistan Tension

Fazlur Rehman has been a consistent critic of the Pakistani government's policy towards Afghanistan. In October, during a peak in bilateral tensions, he offered to mediate between the two nations. According to a Dawn report, he stated, "In the past, I have played a role in reducing tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and I can still do so."

Rehman is known to wield significant influence within the region and remains the only Pakistani lawmaker to have met with the Taliban's supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada.

Recently, India condemned Pakistan's fresh strikes on Afghanistan. "We have seen reports of border clashes in which several Afghan civilians have been killed," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a weekly media briefing.

"We condemn such attacks on innocent Afghan people. India strongly supports the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Afghanistan," he said.

A spokesperson for the Taliban regime claimed Pakistan initiated the attacks and that Kabul was "forced to respond".

The two countries have been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute since the Taliban authorities retook control in Kabul in 2021, with Islamabad accusing its neighbour of harbouring terrorists - a charge that the Afghan government denies.

Comments