‘PM can’t be in same row as Shivaji, Ambedkar, Phule’: Raj Thackeray

MNS chief Raj Thackeray on Sunday denounced placing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's photograph alongside revered historical figures such as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Dr B R Ambedkar, and Mahatma Jyotirao Phule. "You cannot place anybody's photo in the same row as that of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar," he declared during a gathering in Thane.

Thackeray maintained that the Prime Minister's image could be displayed in government buildings and other official institutions, but definitely not in the same row or adjacent to these icons. His comments followed his son Amit Thackeray and MNS activists removing a Modi portrait from a Pune polytechnic institute, an act that provoked outrage from the ruling BJP.

The police subsequently filed an FIR against Amit and his associates. The institute subsequently reinstated the Modi photograph. Thackeray also accused an alleged plot to incite communal discord across Maharashtra, Mumbai, and the nation in the run-up to the Ganesh festival, which commences on September 14. He urgently appealed for Hindus and Muslims to resist what he termed a "design" aimed at provoking unrest.