PUNE: The aging Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has said that in view of the terror attacks in Mumbai last month, the federal government should launch an attack on Pakistan and impose a state of emergency in the country. In a long interview published in the party mouthpiece Saamana yesterday, Thackeray said that the country was not safe in the hands of “impotents and pimps.”
In his interview with the newspaper editor Sanjay Raut, Thackeray mainly used foul language. Replying to a question on the terror attacks in Maharashtra and in the rest of the country by alleged Pakistani terrorists, he said that this happened only due to sheer negligence on the part of government agencies. “The Pakistan-based terrorists capitalized on our weaker points and that gave them the courage to commit terror attacks,” he said.
Asked if only nine terrorists had entered Mumbai, Thackeray said: “Yes. They tested our capabilities first to find out how strong we were. Don’t forget that now the top leadership of the terrorists would become active. And to eliminate those nine terrorists we had to call in the army commandos.”
Thackeray asked as to what is the use of spilling the blood, and due to whose mistakes did the terror attacks take place. Now the blame game has started with each security agencies and the government laying the blame at each other, he said. “In fact, the warning of terror attacks was given much earlier. Everyone is saying that this warning had not reached them,” Thackeray said.
To another question whether he was of the view that the country was in crisis and would crumble, Thackeray said, “As long as the Congress government is in power, the country will remain in crisis. Who is there to take strong and firm decisions? The situation will remain worst under the Congress regime.”
He heaped lavish praise on the late former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi saying “There were differences between us. But Indira had the guts. She attacked Pakistan and helped in getting independence for Bangladesh.”
Launching a strong attack on American President George W. Bush, Thackeray lauded former Iraqi dictator Saddam Husain and the Iraqi journalist Muntadar Al-Zeidi who threw shoes at Bush. Thackeray said “Bush had supported and given a lease of life to a nearly dead Iraq, and for his acts he got hit by a pair of shoes. The significance of being hit by shoes should be taken into mind. This was the outcome of frustration of the shabby treatment that was meted out to Saddam Husain, who was a president of a big country.”
