Bal Thackeray
Bal Thackeray's Health Improves, Mumbai Gets Back to NormalReuters

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray took a dig at the government indirectly by claiming that he could solve all the problems in the country within a month if he is given charge of the Indian army.

Thackeray's claim came in the backdrop of the recent violence in Assam that took many lives and the Mumbai riots triggered by protestors.

"Give me control of the army. I will show you miracles and set everything right within a month. Just hand over the army to me," Samaylive.com quoted Thackeray saying to the party mouthpiece 'Dopaharka Saamna in an interview.

Going a notch higher in condemning the August 11 Azad Maiden riot, Thackeray said that he and his party will not "spare" any troublemakers and fanatic Muslims from Pakistan or Bangladesh across the country, at least as far as Maharashtra is concerned. He alleged that Mumbai riots were pre-planned.

Last month, Muslim groups launched a protest against the violence targeting minority groups in Assam and Myanmar in Mumbai's Azad Maiden. However, the peaceful protest turned bloody when some of the miscreants in the mob resorted to violence.

After the preliminary investigation, the police arrived at the conclusion that the violence was not a spontaneous outbreak but a pre-planned attack, saying that authorities recovered sticks, rods, stones and inflammable material in cans from the spot of the incident.

Thackeray also questioned why Mumbai witness riots when violence breaks out in other parts of the country. He also gave the example of 1992 Babri Mosque demolition in Uttar Pradesh that had its after-effects in Mumbai.

Lending his support to his nephew and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, the Shiv Sena chief (Bal Thackeray) criticized Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for allegedly resorting to vote bank politics.

Thackeray alleged that Nitish was wary of losing Muslims supports in his state. "Nitish don't want to invite Narendra Modi in Bihar because he want to appease Muslims to safeguard his vote bank," Shiv Sena chief said according to Samaylive.

Earlier, Nitish pulled up Raj Thackeray for his remarks of labelling Biharis as "infiltrators" and talked of driving them out of the state.

Raj Thackeray's remarks came in the backdrop of reports that suggested that Bihar authorities objected the detention of Abdul Qadir, a suspect in the latest Mumbai's Azad Maiden violence case, and have supposedly issued a warning to Mumbai authorities to keep their counterparts in the loop before detaining anyone from Bihar.