Raj Thackeray to hold mega-rally in Mumbai on Sunday against illegal Pakistani-Bangladeshi migrants
The MNS president will take out a procession from Girgaum Chowpatty to Azad Maidan on February 9 to seek the deportation of illegal citizens from the neighbouring countries (Representational Image)
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray is set to take to the streets of Mumbai on Sunday by leading a procession to throw out illegal Pakistani-Bangladeshi migrants.
The party has already launched teasers for the campaign and Raj Thackeray will be joined by his son Amit Thackeray, who was formally inducted as a leader at the MNS mega-convention last week.
However, the party has made it clear that the procession is not in support of CAA-NRC-NPR, but specifically against the Pakistani-Bangladeshi infiltrators living illegally in the country.
“India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters. But Pakistani and Bangladeshi infiltrators are not my brothers and sisters. They are not Indians,” read one of the several promos in the build-up for the February 9 march.
The procession will be taken out from Girgaum Chowpatty to Azad Maidan demanding that the illegal citizens from the neighbouring countries must be identified and driven out of India.
Earlier, the Mumbai Police had declined permission to MNS to take out the procession through the Mohammed Ali Road in Muslim-dominated south-central Mumbai.
On January 23, which marked the 94th birth anniversary of Shiv Sena founder the late Balasaheb Thackeray, the MNS reasserted its pro-Hindutva stance with the launch of a new flag and symbol.
मनसे ध्वजाचं अनावरण झाल्यानंतरचे जल्लोषाचे केसरी क्षण… ✨#मनसेध्वज #मनसे_अधिवेशन #राजठाकरे #महाराष्ट्रधर्म #हिंदवीस्वराज्य #महाराष्ट्रसैनिक #RajThackeray #MaharashtraDharma #Hindaviswarajya pic.twitter.com/zosEaIkg2v
— MNS Adhikrut (@mnsadhikrut) January 23, 2020
The new agenda is being seen by political observers as a means of aligning with the BJP, whose near three-decade-old alliance with saffron ally Shiv Sena came to an end last year after the latter allied with Congress-NCP to form government in Maharashtra.
Others, meanwhile, are seeing the rally as more of a hollow demonstration which will have little or no effect on the ground reality.
