Thackeray...

“Even after that, if you cannot remember it, we will bring scores of Hindus together and build the mandir,” he said.

Thackeray congratulated the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, Mohan Bhagwat, who had, earlier on Thursday, spoken in Nagpur about bringing in “an appropriate and requisite law” to build the temple. Thackeray said the head of the right-wing outfit expressed what the Shiv Sena has been asking for.

However, the Sena chief steered clear of spelling out the possibility of an alliance with the BJP. While the Sena and BJP are allies both at the Centre and in the state, the former has been talking about pulling out and contesting the elections of 2019 on its own. Thackeray asked his cadre to prepare for polls next year and insisted that his party is in government with the BJP only for the sake of Hindutva.

“The winds of 2014 are no longer prevalent,” Thackeray said, while attacking the BJP over inflation, rising fuel prices and the safety of women. Hitting out at Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Thackeray said, “Ravi Shankar Prasad says inflation is not in our control, fuel prices are not in our control. I ask them ‘what is in your control?’ You can’t control inflation, you can’t ensure the safety of women.”

“Lord Vishnu’s avtar is with you, and yet nothing is in your control,” Thackeray taunted the BJP, referring to Maharashtra’s BJP spokesperson Avadhut Wagh’s recent statement calling PM Modi the “eleventh avatar of Lord Vishnu”.

Thackeray said the PM, his cabinet colleagues and the chief ministers of states will descend in the five states that go to the polls next month to campaign, even though the Sena earlier demanded that they don’t. “It is a big failure for the BJP if the PM, his Union ministers, and CMS of other states are needed for state poll campaigns.”

He demanded the state government should announce drought in Maharashtra soon, so relief can be given to the farmers. He warned that the Sena will take to the streets to demand this.

NOISE LEVELS PEAK

The noise at Sena’s Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park crossed permissible limits, but were the lowest in four years. The peak decibel (db) level was recorded during Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut’s speech, at 88.4 db (as loud as a propeller plane flying at 1,000 ft). The overall maximum noise ranged between 86.1 db to 87.4 db (almost as loud as a dishwasher), according to the Awaaz Foundation.

While Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s speech peak level was at 87.2 db, other Sena leaders such as Subhash Desai, mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar, and state environment minister Ramdas Kadam’s speech was as loud as 86.1 db, 87.4 db, and 86.1 db.

Last year, Awaaz Foundation found noise levels peaked at 92 decibels (db) — almost as loud as a motorcycle 25 feet away — as against 2016 noise level of 98.9db, which is almost as loud as a discotheque. In 2015, Kadam’s speech was the loudest at 97.4db.