Shiv Sena claims victory

The Shiv Sena on Friday accused the Centre of using Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, as an ATM and said that if security arrangements made for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his visit here were in place for the common man there would have been no terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

The Shiv Sena on Friday accused the Centre of using Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, as an ATM and said that if security arrangements made for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his visit here were in place for the common man there would have been no terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

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Ridiculing Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Minister of State for Home Ramesh Bagwe, Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray said, “The chief minister of this state was reduced to a guard. He was sitting at Ghatkopar for two hours waiting for his boss. The state’s minister of state for home was looking after Rahul’s shoes.”

Referring to Rahul’s stop at an ATM en route to Andheri station, Uddhav said, “This is what people from Delhi want to convert Mumbai into. The city has been made an ATM — All Time Money. One can take away Mumbai’s money anytime to Delhi.
This is the mentality we are fighting against.”

Claiming the Sena’s protests against Rahul’s visit were a success, Uddhav said, “It seems only Rahul was feeling insecure in this city. Even if he was to travel without security, he would not have been harmed. It seemed that an Italian Mussolini had come to Mumbai. His itinerary in the city was curtailed and he had to change his route plan due to the Sena threat.”

“The only thing Rahul did was to just hop from one train to another. If he was so concerned about the railways, he should have talked of reducing the load on our local trains or starting new services,” said MNS spokesperson Shirish Parkar.

“Rahul should apologise for insulting Maharashtrians by making wild statements in Bihar,” he added.