Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray addressed the annual Gudi Padwa gathering of his party on 2nd April 2022 at Shivaji Park in Mumbai. In his fierce style, Raj Thackeray warned that if the government is not going to decide anything about the loudspeakers in the mosques, he will put double loudspeakers in front of the mosques and chant Hanuman Chalisa. He also said that if the police properly check the mosques and madarsas in the slums of Mumbai they will get to know many things. He also underlined the changing demographics of Mumbai and other places of Maharashtra and alleged that so many Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh have come and settled here.
Right in the opening of the speech, Raj Thackeray thanked the police force for ensuring discipline during the tough times of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown. He then criticized the way the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was formed disrespecting the mandate given by the voters of Maharashtra. Raj Thackeray then reminded the audience of the whole sequence from planting explosives near the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani to the arrest of Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik. He also criticized Maha Vikas Aghadi for bringing into the cabinet MLAs of NCP having criminal backgrounds.
Raj Thackeray said, “If ED thinks so, then a notice is bound to reach your home. I too had received a notice. I went to the ED office. Now Uddhav Thackeray says in the assembly don’t you dare to target my family. Before saying so, he must prohibit his family from visiting the office of the MCGM and poke their noses into every little thing there.”
Raj Thackeray further said, “When I watched the results of the assembly elections of the Uttar Pradesh and I knew that Uttar Pradesh is being developed, I was so happy. Because that is what I want. Because when the people living in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand get their jobs in their home states, it automatically reduces the burden on Mumbai and Maharashtra. No one should need to leave his place for bread and butter and this should happen in every state.”
He further said, “A Hindu is a Hindu only in Hindu-Muslim riots. On 15th August and 26th January, he becomes an Indian. Otherwise, he becomes Marathi, Gujarati, etc. When you go into the states Hindus get divided into castes. And in Maharashtra, this politics of dividing Hindus into castes has picked up pace after Sharad Pawar formed Nationalist Congress Party in 1999. When we are going to unite as Hindus?”
Raj Thackeray further said, “There is a difference between the slums of 1995 and slums today. If people, police, and administration persons carefully see these slums, they will get to know so many things. There are mosques and madarsas. What happens through those mosques? What is being taught in those madarsas? It is shocking. So many people from Pakistan and Bangladesh have come and settled in Mumbai and many other cities in Maharashtra. They have documents like the AADHAAR cards, ration cards, etc. Behrampada near Uddhav Thackeray’s residence Matoshri has four-story houses built in the slums. Police persons have all the sources. They must be discussing these things in private. If there is so much going on here, do we need a separate Pakistan? If anything happens, it would be very difficult to control the situation.”
Raj Thackeray then slammed the loudspeakers saying, “I don’t oppose one’s right to pray but the loudspeakers on the mosques must be removed. I request the government to get them removed. Otherwise, I tell this right now, we will put double loudspeakers to chant Hanuman Chalisa right in front of those mosques. Which religion mentions loudspeaker? Was there any loudspeaker when your religion was invented?”
