Fernandes asks Raj to seek forgiveness

Criticising Raj Thackeray and his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MNS for assaulting Mumbai8217;s taxi drivers, a group he had once led, Janata Dal U leader George Fernandes wrote a letter to the MNS chief on Saturday asking him to seek forgiveness from all those who have been compelled to leave Maharashtra in the wake of violence against north Indians. He urged Raj to read the Constitution and advised him to be an Indian first.

8220;What made you terrorise and assault the taximen of Mumbai and the workers who had come from north India, particularly Bihar and Uttar Pradesh,8221; wrote Fernandes and reminded Raj that years ago he had founded the Bombay Taximen Union when banks had refused to give loan to taxi drivers. 8220;When I led a procession to the Government with a request to provide loans, all of us who were part of the procession were lathicharged and arrested.8221; He added that during the Emergency, the Government even tried to close the union office, 8220;but two taximen stood guard over it throughout to stall any such move. The same office was attacked by your goons8221;.

Fernandes recalled that in the 1967 Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader S K Patil, who was contesting against him, called Fernandes a Kannadiga. All through the campaign, according to Fernandes, he responded by saying that 8220;like Maharashtra, Karnataka too belongs to India and I am fighting elections in India8221;.