Charging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “betrayed” the nation, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray said here on Thursday that Modi shunted out Suresh Prabhu from his post as the Railway Minister after he opposed the bullet train project — a project, he alleged, had been embarked upon by Modi to benefit a handful of Gujaratis based in Ahmedbad and Mumbai.
Addressing a public rally after taking out a massive morcha to highlight Mumbai suburban railway commuters’ issues, Raj gave an ultimatum to the Central and Western Railway authorities to evict hawkers occupying foot-over-bridges and other premises of all suburban railway stations within next 15 days, failing which his party workers would remove the hawkers from the railway premises in a typical “MNS style”.
Raj had earlier walked with several thousands of his party workers from Metro Cinema near the Central Railway headquarters to the western Railway headquarters of Churchgate and submitted a memorandum to the authorities to address safety issues improve the suburban train services in the wake of the September 29 stampede in which 23 commuters were killed and 38 injured.
“The morcha taken out by us today was peaceful in nature. If the authorities do not make amends in their conduct and improve the situation on ground, then I warn them that my next morcha would not be a peaceful one,” the MNS chief said.
Raj, who devoted most of the speech to pillory Modi for his failure to keep to keep his pre-election promises, said: “The people would not mind if someone about whom they had no hopes were to betray them. But someone in whom a person like me and the entire nation reposed confidence, betrays the people, then there is bound to be a lot of anger among all of us. The people loved you and elected you to power after you promised achhe din”
“But, Nitin Gadkari admitted later that the achhe din slogan had become a bone stuck in throat. But, that means achhe din would not come. Modi had promised to deposit Rs 15 lakh in the bank account of every one. But, later Amit Shah said, it was an election jhumla. He betrayed the people on this country. Nowadays we are getting to see Modi’s old video clips in which he had taken stands contrary to the positions being taken by him now,” he said.
Reiterating the opposition to the bullet train project, Raj said: “Just because Suresh Prabhu opposed the bullet train, Modi replaced him with his own man Piyush Goyal as the Railway Minister. In fact, it was I who had opposed the bullet train project first. later on others followed the suit..... Don’t we know the designs Modi had on Modi for years. You have taken a loan of staggering Rs 1.1 lakh crore from Japan to start bullet train for a handful of Gujaratis based in Ahmedabad and Gujarat. Why should the entire repay the loans taken for the purposeIJ”.
Raj, who had in the past heaped praise on Modi for the development work done in Gujarat, said: “I have never seen a Prime minister who lied so much... Upon the adviceof Ratan Tata, I had gone to Gujarat to see the development works there. Now I realise that the picture of development that was projected to me was a bogus one...Even the people in the BJP know that Modi continues to lie. The popular slogan -- development has gone crazy – has actually come from the BJP itself”
Slamming Modi on various issues including demonetisation, Make in India, Swachh Bharat and GST, the MNS chief alluded to the economic slowdown in the country. “There is so much of confusion about the GST in the country. Even charted accountants do not know how to file returns.... The economic recession prevailing in the country would continue for many more months to come. ..Modi has ruined the country. I have nothing personally against Modi. But I am opposed to what he had said earlier and the positions he is taking now”.
Raj went onto advise the officials in the Election Commission and also the judiciary not to simply toe the Government’s line. “The governments come and go. The Election Commission should conduct itself independents. I also expect the judges in high courts and Supreme court will come out with appropriate verdicts and not favour the Government”.
Raj also exhorted the editors and journalists of the newspapers across the country to stand up against the Modi government and bring it to its knees. “Efforts were made to prevent people from coming to this morcha. But, still a large number of people have turned out to morcha. All I can say, the voices of opposition have begun to rise against the Government will not stop now but will get louder,” he said.