Raj Thackeray played his signature anti-migrant card at the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) protest rally on Tuesday,blaming outsiders and illegal Bangladeshi migrants for the violence at Azad Maidan on August 11. Thackeray demanded that Home Minister R R Patil and Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik resign for failing to control the rioters. I am standing here to express solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the police force and the media and to demand immediate resignation of Patil and Patnaik. If they have any shame,they should quit now, Thackeray told the crowd of over 45,000 at Azad Maidan. They (Patil and Patnaik) have played with the morale of the police. Our policemen kept waiting for instructions to control violence. When a DCP caught hold of a rioter,Patnaik abused him and told him to let the offender go. Reacting to the assessment that he was trying to occupy the radical Hindutva space vacated by a mellowing Shiv Sena,Thackeray said the issue was not about Hindus and Muslims. The only religion I understand is Maharashtra. My Marathi brothers were beaten up and my Marathi sisters gravely insulted that day, he said. Thackeray showed the crowd what was purportedly a Bangladeshi passport,which he claimed was recovered from Azad Maidan after the violence on August 11. I am sure that the violence was perpetrated by Bangladeshis living illegally in India and migrants from UP,Bihar and Jharkhand, he said. Anyone who attacks the police machinery should be heavily penalized irrespective of their religion. Where do you see the issue of Hindutva in this? His party,Thackeray said,would never cross the line and lift a hand against a policeman. At Chowpatty,thousands had begun to gather from well before dawn for the march to Azad Maidan,scheduled to begin at noon. Thackeray said his partys intention was to protest peacefully against the attack on police and mediapersons. In 2006,during a protest by Raza Academy in Bhiwandi,two policemen were killed and their bodies thrown into burning buses. Still they got permission for a public protest, Thackeray said while criticizing the police for denying him permission for the rally. Raza Academy was allowed to hold the protest despite their poor track record, he said. Thackeray also attacked the government for not paying compensation to the policemen injured in the August 11 attack. How do we expect them (policemen) to stand up and fight when such a thing happens the next time? The MNS chief also criticized Assistant Commissioner of Police Vasant Dhoble for his moral policing attacks on innocent Mumbaikars,and Dalit leaders Mayawati,Ramdas Athavle and Prakash Ambedkar for not protesting against the vandalism of a Buddha statue in Uttar Pradesh last week.
