MUMBAI: While keeping up his tirade against the BJP and the governments at the Centre and the state, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Monday raised questions about the war preparedness of the nation and also raised his voice against the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Corridor.
"There has been violence over the petty issues like beef. If conditions remain tense internally, would you really be able to fight a war with an external enemy?" Thackeray asked in the second part of his interview published in his party mouthpiece Saamana here on Monday.
"Our PM has been roaming around the world visiting several nations. He is said to have befriended almost all heads of nations. If that is really so, why are we not able to arrest the aggressiveness of Pakistan and China as yet?" he asked further.
"They have been saying in internal party meetings that the Shiv Sena is their enemy number one. Is that the reason why the aggressiveness from Pakistan and China is being ignored," he asked while taking a jibe at the BJP.
When asked why, despite the Centre's bad performance, they still were in the coalition, he said, "We came together with a common intention of ousting the Congress. Now that we are successful in it, I don't feel there is any point in continuing with them," he said.
Thackeray also said that he had taken this stand publically at a party rally in Mumbai on January 26, just ahead of BMC elections. Asked whether he had gone back on his stand in the past few months, he made it clear that his meetings with the BJP leaders in past few months came as Shiv Sena is a part of the governments.
"In Maharashtra, we were successful in getting the crop loans waived. Now, the next phase would be the struggle over Samruddhi corridor," Thackeray said and added that his party is committed to farmers and won't let the government move ahead with the project till the farmers are opposing it.