Hand over Army to me, I’ll straighten out nation: Bal Thackeray

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Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Saturday claimed that he would solve all the problems facing the country, if he was given charge of the Indian Army.

He said he would set things right in the country within a month. In an interview published in party mouthpiece Dopaharka Saamna on Saturday, Thackeray warned that he would not 'spare' Muslim fundamentalists who were bent on fomenting trouble in the country.

"Give me control of the army. I will show you miracles and set everything right within a month. Just hand over the army to me," said Thackeray.

Thackeray rued the fact that his party Shiv Sena was not 'armed' to set things right in the country.

His army (Shiv Sena) had only saffron flags, he said. "Yet, we have so much influence, but I don't want only that, hoardings, banners and drums," he said.

The 86-year-old leader said the violence at Azad Maidan on August 11 when Muslim groups were protesting the alleged attacks on Muslims in Myanmar and the riots in Assam was 'pre-planned just like many other such incidents in the past'.

"After Babri mosque demolition, they (Muslims) started riots in Mumbai. Even during the Godhra carnage, they locked up three bogies of Sabarmati Express and burnt people, women and children, alive. Similarly, the Mumbai violence (of August 2012) was pre-planned," Thackeray asserted.

He said that the incident was roundly condemned by the Shiv Sena and his nephew Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, but asked, "where were the people who paralysed Parliament," referring to the Sena's ally Bharatiya Janata Party.

However, Thackeray warned that he would not 'spare' the perpetrators of violence and fanatic Muslims from Pakistan or Bangladesh who are creating trouble in the country, at least in Maharashtra.