Shiv Sena on Friday accused the Centre of using Mumbai, the financial capital, as an ATM and said that if security arrangements made for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his visit here are in place for the common man there would be no terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Referring to Rahul's stop at an ATM enroute to Andheri station, Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray said "Mumbai has been made an ATM (Any Time Money) of Delhi.
One can take away Mumbai's money anytime to Delhi. This is the mentality we are fighting against." Ridiculing the heavy security blanket thrown in the city for Rahul's visit, Uddhav told reporters that "only Rahul felt insecure in Mumbai. Even if he was to travel without security, he would not have been harmed."
"The Chief Minister was in the role of a policeman for two hours and Minister of State for Home was looking after Rahul's shoes", the Shiv Sena leader said. "It looked like as if Italian Mussolini had come to Mumbai. His schedule in the city was curtailed and he had to change his route plan due to the Sena threat," he said.
Claiming success for Sena's black flag protest against Rahul, he said "we had planned to greet him with black flags and that we did despite heavy security bandobust. Our protest was a success". Uddhav said "if Rahul had visited Chor bazar, he would have found late Hemant Karkare's (ATS chief slain during 26/11 attacks) missing bullet proof jacket," he said. PTI
