Bihar CM Nitish Kumar slams Centre, Maharashtra for not acting against Raj Thackeray

PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday took on the Centre and Maharashtra government for their 'indulgence' towards MNS chief Raj Thackeray, who has gone on a tirade against Biharis.

"The MNS chief's diatribes against Biharis pose a challenge to all governments to deal with a person who has been holding out threat to the migrant people. People have the constitutional right to live and work in any part of the country," Kumar told reporters here. He said it was the responsibility of the central and Maharashtra government to take note of the conduct of a person like Thackeray and deal sternly with such elements.

"Has the Mumbai police and the Maharashtra government outsourced governance to Thackeray," he asked, questioning how the Centre and state government would deal with terrorism if they could not rein in a person like Thackeray. He castigated the state government for not taking any action against Thackeray for his hate speech against Biharis and apparently allowing him to speak on its behalf to question Bihar government for protesting the arrest of one Abdul Qadir - an accused in desecration of the martyrs memorial in Mumbai last month - from his native Sitamarhi district by Mumbai Police without informing the local counterpart.

Raj Thackeray attacks Hindi news channels

Under attack from various parties for his remarks made on Friday, Thackeray on Sunday said his statements were being distorted. "I want to tell the Hindi news channel to first understand the issue before it is broadcast...otherwise we know how to stop it," he said. Thackeray had said "if the Bihar government tries to become a hurdle in the way of a police investigation, then my party would dub every Bihari in Maharashtra as an infiltrator, and would force them to leave the state."