Mumbai: The Shiv Sena continues to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state over the issue of fuel prices and inflation. Shiv Sena workers carried out protests on Monday while the party mouthpiece Saamana criticised the Narendra Modi-led government. The party even justifed the mock funeral of the PM carried out by the party workers by terming it an expression of public anger.
Shiv Sena women activists took out a morcha at the Thane collectorate protesting against fuel prices and growth in rate of inflation. They carried placards asking “kaha gaye achhe din” (Where are good days.)
Two days ago, the Sena had carried out a mock funeral of Mr Modi, which had not gone down well with the BJP. However, an editorial published in Saamana on Monday said it was “public anger” against the government.
Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan had last week attributed the recent rise in fuel prices to the hurricane in the US, and said the rates would come down in the next few days as the prices reduce in the international market.
The Sena also asked the Centre why there was a rise in prices of daily use items such as cooking gas and vegetables, since the BJP-led NDA came to power in 2014.
“If fuel prices rose due to the hurricane in the US, why did the prices not increase in Europe and America and only in India?” the editorial asked.
The Sena also said that the growth rate has decreased, industrialisation has come down, unemployment has increased and inflation has shot up after the Modi government came to power.
“Those who say Sena MPs and MLAs got elected due to the ‘Modi wave’ have forgotten that for the last 25-30 years they were surviving on the Sena’s wave,” the Sena said.
The editorial asked, “The question is if the Modi wave is so effective, why are the problems of people not getting solved and why are they being fleeced every day?”
Interestingly, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has also taken objection to the language used by the Sena against the PM. “The slogans raised by Shiv Sena against Mr Modi were in bad taste,” president of Maharashtra unit of NCP, Sunil Tatkare said.
