Raj sounds bugle for ‘Modi-mukt Bharat’

mumbai — Launching a scathing attack on the BJP-led NDA government, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray has called for opposition unity and a “Modi-mukt Bharat” by 2019.

Addressing party workers at a rally at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai on Sunday, Thackeray said: “The country is fed up with the false promises made by (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and his government.”

All opposition parties should come together to get rid of the BJPled NDA government to ensure a “Modi-mukt Bharat”, he said, while reminding the audience of the BJP’s “Congress-mukt Bharat” slogan.

“India got its first independence in 1947, second in 1977 (after the post-Emergency election) and 2019 can bring a third independence if India becomes Modimukt,” he said.

If the Modi government was ousted and an inquiry was ordered into demonetisation, it (the note ban) might turn out to be the biggest scam in the country since 1947, he said.

Quoting an ISRO report, Thackeray said: “A large-scale desertification of Maharashtra is going on due to depletion of groundwater. After Rajasthan, our state has reported the second highest rate of desertification in the country.”

He went on to question Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s claim of digging of 56,000 wells in the state.

The MNS chief said he was in favour of building a Ram temple in Ayodhya, but it should not be used as an election issue. “The Babri Masjid demolition case is in the Supreme Court and it will be deliberately discussed in the coming days to instigate communal riots,” he claimed.