Click to play videoMumbai: Shiv Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray may not be on speaking terms with his estranged cousin MNS leader Raj Thackeray but about immigrants they speak alike.
Uddhav, while speaking at a rally of the Shiv Sena-affiliated Airport Workers and Officers Union on Saturday, said Mahrashtrians must get preference for jobs in the Mumbai airport project.
“I want to say that as and when the promised one lakh job opportunities will come up, priority should be given to the sons of the soil. All outsiders will be considered after our Marathi Manoos (Marathi person),” said Uddhav, son of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.
“If this is not done then we shall pack and parcel them (outsiders) back from where they came, and in the same flight,” he said.
Uddhav, who spoke about the clashes between MNS workers and immigrants for the first time, made a veiled attack on Raj, saying the campaign against north Indians in Mumbai was "spoiling the image" of Maharashtra and its people.
"Through such acts, they are not only spoiling the image of Maharashtra but also of the Marathi Manoos," he was quoted by IANS as saying.
"People know who is duplicate and who is real. They very well know that Shiv Sena has been fighting for the rights of the Marathi Manoos for the last 40 years," he said without naming Raj.
Uddhav's remarks came a day after Bal Thackeray criticised Raj in an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamna.
Shiv Sena's mouthpiece Saamna has also added fuel to the fire. Editor-in-chief Sanjay Raut says in an editorial published on Sunday, “We shall not allow political leaders of other states to teach people to throw stones”.
“If the outsiders want to live in the city and state then they will have to live like maharashtrians and not like outsiders. We shall not allow them to display their strengths in this state,” says Sanjay Raut.
Raj Thackeray on Saturday said his party workers were provoked and therefore attacked north Indian taxi drivers last week.
"Things like Chhath Puja are just a show of strength for the people from UP and Bihar with intention of harming the Marathi culture. I cannot tolerate such dadagiri (bullying) and if any attempts are made by them to tarnish the Marathi culture, they will be met with resistance," he said at a press conference in Mumbai which was barred for English and Hindi language journalists.
The MNS, over the past week, has targeted north Indian taxi drivers, street food vendors, train passengers and theatres showing Bhojpuri films across Maharashtra. The violence started in the run-up to a UNPA rally addressed by former UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday in Mumbai.
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