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Uddhav Thackeray targets PM Narendra Modi’s bullet train, Piyush Goyal defends
YB WEB DESK. Dated: 10/1/2017 2:37:14 PM
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday took on Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and said that instead of his “dream” bullet train, Mumbai needs to raise basic railway infrastructure first, even as Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that the bullet train will make travel safer and comfortable.
Addressing the Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park in Dadar, central Mumbai, Thackeray said, “For your dreams, you (Modi) have crushed the dreams of the common people. Has anyone asked for the bullet train?…It is (being implemented) because it is coming with no cost. But the bullet train is a free snake, who will nurture it?”
Addressing the media later, Goyal said, “Why Mumbai does not need a bullet train is a question that can be answered (only) by Uddhav-ji. While he asks for development of railway infrastructure, a bullet train, which has the latest technology, will provide the same. Manufactured under the ‘Make In India’ technology, it will be the best product for railways in the country.”
Slamming critics of the project, which envisages an investment of over Rs 1 lakh crore, Goyal said, “Many people have complained how India can make do with a cheaper bullet train. However, I do not want cheaper bullet train for the country, but (want) a safer one.”
At his Dussehra rally, Uddhav Thackeray criticised the BJP on a range of issues — from demonetisation and rollout of GST to the fracas at Banaras Hindu University, price-rise, the BJP’s ostensibly ambivalent stand on beef ban, Vande Mataram, and its brand of Hindutva.
“The girl students at BHU were beaten up for no fault. This is not our Hindutva. While there is a beef ban in Maharashtra, BJP leaders in Goa are saying they will import beef in case of shortage. Then what’s BJP’s stand on beef? We don’t need such Hindutva tokenism,” Thackeray said, adding that the Sena follows the “hard Hindutva of Veer Savarkar”. Thackeray also dared Modi to control prices of five essential commodities in the remainder of his tenure as PM.