Those hit hard by my Hindutva laid the Ayodhya trap, says Raj Thackeray

Apart from his scheduled hip surgery which has put off his June 5 Ayodhya tour MNS president Raj Thackeray said he has realised that the opposition from a sole BJP MP who also dared the UP CM was a trap laid for him and his workers who if engaged with the MPrsquos supporters in the temple town during his trip could have been jailed ahead of the local body polls He said he wanted to protect his lsquoboysrdquo and vowed to continue the agitation against loudspeakers on mosques saying it yielded results across IndiaAt an indoor rally in Pune on Sunday Raj said his leg was in severe pain He will be undergoing hip surgery on June 1 and need twothree weeks to recover ldquoSome people felt bad and some felt happy because I put off the tour Some poked at me but I gave them a buffer of a few days to speak more against me And here Irsquom today to respondrdquolsquoIt was a traprsquoRaj said he had been getting information from Mumbai Delhi and UP when someone threatened that he would not be allowed to enter Ayodhya if he didnt apologise for his hate speeches against north Indian migrants ldquoI realised that it was a trap All required provisions were sent from Maharashtra with a suggestion that the old issues be dug out The strategy was planned together by those who are affected by our Hindutva There are many layers to it and I canrsquot talk about all of them nowrdquo he said Raj said he wanted to pray not only at Ram Janmabhoomi but also at the spot where kar sevaks had fallen to the bullets fired by the then Mulayam Singh government ldquoBut people in politics donrsquot understand such emotionsrdquoldquoHad I persisted to visit many of my boys would have accompanied me and taken on the opponents The plan was to arrest these boys and rot them in jails so that they are not available for party work during the polls I told my party colleagues that I would not sacrifice my boys I would rather prefer to get abused and criticisedrdquo he saidRaj did not name the strategists but called it a joint effort of parties which were enraged because of his fight for Hindutva ldquoWhy dig out the past They have awakened now and are demanding my apology I tell you that they have set a bad precedentrdquoThe MNS president said north Indian migrants were beaten up in the wake of a minor girlrsquos rape in Gujarat Some 20000 migrants left the state came to Mumbai and returned home ldquoWho will apologise for this Understand the politics behind it All those who are enraged by our Hindutva have come togetherrdquoRaj said he had asked for reciting the Hanuman Chalisa in front of lsquoerringrsquo mosques but the Rana couple chose to do it in front of Matoshree CM Uddhav Thackerayrsquos residence ldquoIs Matoshree a masjid The couple was jailed The Sena and the Ranas spoke many things against each other We have seen the rada And later Sena MP Sanjay Raut was seen breaking bread with the Ranas in Ladakh How can the Sena officebearers bear this Their Hindutva is nothing but blabberinghelliprdquoSuccessful agitationsOn allegations that he gave up agitations midway Raj said all his agitations were successful ldquoAcross India the morning azan has been stopped for the first time Tolls are either stopped or have reduced their rates We drove away Pakistani artists from India We took out a morcha against Raza Academyrsquos atrocities against the women police The agitation for securing railway jobs for Marathi people was also successfulrdquo He recalled how MNS took on north Indians when one of its workers was abused by a person who had come for a railway exam in Mumbai ldquoMNS workers had gone to meet the thousands of north Indian people who arrived in Mumbai Instead of speaking nicely our worker was abused The recruitment drive for jobs in Maharashtra was published in north India not here denying our boys placement opportunityrdquoHe said that following the agitation the then railway minister Mamata Banerjee decided that the railways recruitment exams would be written in regional languages as well ldquoIncreasing number of Marathi people are getting railway jobs since thenrdquoRaj poked at his estranged cousin and CM Uddhav for drawing parallels between Shiv Senarsquos Hindutva and othersrsquo Hindutva ldquoAre you selling washing powder We have given results with our Hindutva and people know itrdquoHe asked whether the CM was ever booked for public protest or political agitation ldquoWhat kind of childish speech it wasrdquo he said in reference to the CMrsquos rally on May 17 ldquoHe the CM remembers only 199293 He says there is no need of renaming Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar Who are you Patel or Gandhi Actually they have been in power but didnrsquot rename the city because they want the issue burning for vote politicsHe accused the Sena of helping AIMIM grow in Aurangabad ldquoThey didnrsquot realise they had helped a demon grow The demon won an MPrsquos poll beating Sena And when the leaders of such a party pray at the grave of Aurangzeb they remain silentrdquo he said demanding from the Modi government the renaming of Aurangabad He again demanded a uniform civil code and a population control actRaj accused NPC boss Sharad Pawar of glorifying Afzal Khan as a Sufi saint ldquoWhy do you alter history for your own gainsrdquo he asked questioning the expansion of Khanrsquos grave into a masjid He said Pawar was harming Sena founder the late Balasaheb Thackerayrsquos credibility by giving the impression that political rivalry between the two was fake He said it was the public silence that kept India off independence for 900 years ldquoYou remain unconscious of what is happening around you These people watch you closely for opposition to loudspeakers They will up their ante once you give up on agitationrdquo he saidRaj also asked his party workers to deliver a letter from him to every Hindu household in the days to come