 "Loudspeaker row: 'Don't test our patience', Raj Thackeray tells Uddhav")
Slamming Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray over the loudspeakers-on-mosques issue, MNS president Raj Thackeray on Tuesday cautioned the Shiv Sena-led MVA government against "testing the patience" of his party in the matter.
In a letter addressed to the chief minister, Raj, who perhaps for the first time addressed his estranged cousin as Uddhav Thackeray, said over 28,000 MNS workers have been served preventive notices, while thousands have been externed.
This (police action) is for what? To not remove loudspeakers from mosques that are leading to noise pollution? he questioned.
He said the police are looking for leaders of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena as if they are Pakistani terrorists or 'Razakars' under the erstwhile Nizam rule.
It makes me ponder whether the same high-handedness was shown by the police to find out terrorists or arms hidden in mosques, the MNS chief wondered.
He said Marathi people and Hindus are watching this stance of the state government.
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Raj Thackeray had earlier given the May 4 ultimatum to the state government to remove loudspeakers atop mosques and warned that 'Hanuman Chalisa' will be played outside mosques at a higher volume if it is not done.
I have only one thing to tell the state government. Do not test our patience. No one has come with the ('tamrapat') copper plate of power. Even you have not, Uddhav Thackeray, Raj stated.
On Raj Thackeray's ultimatum, the state government had said that the Union government should come out with a policy on the use of the public address system.
The Thackeray cousins share a frosty relationship, especially since Raj's exit from the Shiv Sena, founded by his uncle the late Bal Thackeray, in 2005.
Maintaining a defiant position over playing Hanuman Chalisa, Raj Thackeray on May 4 asserted that his party will continue with the protests till all sound systems atop mosques are silenced.