Raj Thackeray Thane Speech: The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief has urged Hindu and Muslim residents to remain alert during Ganeshotsav, claiming that communal incidents could be provoked to divert public attention from unemployment, economic conditions and other pressing issues
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray on Sunday warned of possible communal tension during the Ganeshotsav period and appealed to what he described as responsible members of the Hindu and Muslim communities to remain vigilant. He made the remarks while addressing MNS office-bearers at Gadkari Rangayatan in Thane.
According to a report by Loksatta, Thackeray said the social-media environment was being heated deliberately to create anger among communities. He alleged that citizens were being drawn into caste and religious disputes while attention was diverted from unemployment, economic conditions, education and farmer suicides.
Thackeray said there was a difference between faith in a deity, pride in one’s religion and religious extremism. He claimed that communal incidents could be engineered during Ganeshotsav, leaving citizens occupied with conflict and diverting attention from other public issues. He referred to one or two incidents in Mumbai and said they could be the beginning of a wider situation, without providing further details in the reported speech.
His comments come ahead of the annual Ganeshotsav period, when large public processions, temporary installations and neighbourhood gatherings increase activity across cities in Maharashtra. The festival requires coordination among civic authorities, police, organisers and residents on matters including crowd movement, traffic management, public safety and law and order.
During the address, Thackeray also criticised the Union government over unemployment, the country’s economic conditions and the handling of language-related issues. He questioned claims about India’s 7.8 per cent gross domestic product growth and asked why citizens should be discouraged from travelling abroad or buying gold if the economy was performing strongly.
He further claimed that 503 companies had shut their operations in India between 2021 and 2026, citing what he described as a central government report. The report did not provide details of the companies or the basis for the figure. Thackeray also claimed that around 13,000 industrialists capable of investing more than Rs 250 crore had left the country between 2018 and 2026.
The MNS chief criticised the use of photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in government offices, saying Modi’s photograph could be displayed but should not be placed alongside those of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Dr B.R. Ambedkar and Mahatma Phule. He also alleged that Marathi-speaking citizens were being drawn into language disputes.
Thackeray’s appeal places the focus on how authorities and community organisations manage public gatherings during the festival period. The reported address did not announce any specific security measure, police directive or civic action. Further official statements from the police or local administration were not included in the report.
