Unfazed by strident criticism of his cousin MNS leader Raj Thackeray over his anti-Bihari remarks, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday sought a permit system to check influx of Bihari migrants into Mumbai.
Mr. Uddhav Thackeray also declared that his party would not accept Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar as NDA’s prime ministerial candidate if he continues to stick to his stand on supporting “traitors.”
“The Bihar CM should have felt ashamed that the Amar Jawan memorial vandal turned out to be a Bihari,” Sena mouthpiece Saamana on Tuesday quoted Mr. Uddhav as saying.
“If Mumbai Police needs Bihar Police’s permission to nab criminals who have committed crime in Maharashtra and escaped to Bihar, then implement the permit system for those coming here from Bihar,” Mr. Uddhav said.
By meddling in police action in the matter of a person from Bihar arrested in the Azad Maidan violence case, Nitish Kumar has fuelled a controversy, he said.
Raj Thackeray had last week threatened to brand Biharis in Maharashtra as “infiltrators”.
Taking a dig at the MNS, Mr. Uddhav said, “If there are followers who are taking up Shiv Sena’s issues like Marathi pride, issues of sons of soil and opposition to Pakistani artistes, it is good.”
“However, there is no navnirman (new creation) in taking up old issues,” Mr. Uddhav said, in a pun on the word navnirman in the name of Raj Thackeray’s outfit.
On Monday, Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray had said Bihar’s chief secretary had no business interfering in the action taken by Mumbai Police to arrest a person accused of violence at Azad Maidan.
“Nitish Kumar should have congratulated Mumbai Police for their action as the arrest had prevented Abdul Qadir from fomenting more trouble in that state,” he had said.
