Mumbai, Jun 23: Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, who had asked people to hoist black flags against the eviction of Swami Ramdev from Ramlila Maidan, has criticised both Ramdev and Anna Hazare on Wednesday saying they were being funded by corporates.
“I don't have evidence for what I am saying. But one needs to check the source behind Anna's brains. I wonder how he spends so much time and money for his campaigns — he travels by cars and planes — who are the corporates behind this?” the aged Sena supremo asked.
Thackeray slammed the government for the mushrooming of such campaigns and growing publicity for ‘such people'.
“The Centre is losing its grip on the country and that is the reason why people like Hazare and Ramdev have come up,” he said.
Taking a potshot at the media, Thackeray said these campaigns were also backed by strong publicity.
Thackeray lashed out at BJP leader Gopinath Munde for saying that he was being sidelined.
“How come he realised so late that he was being humiliated in the BJP?” Thackeray asked, talking to reporters at his residence.
Thackeray said this was the “internal” matter of the BJP and he would not like to interfere in it in any manner.
He brushed aside a question whether he would speak to BJP leaders, including party chief Nitin Gadkari and L.K. Advani, about Munde's grievances.
“Where is the need? I do not feel the need to speak to any leader on this issue,” he said.
Thackeray expressed his readiness to entertain Munde if he wanted to speak to the Sena supremo about his grievances.
“The doors of ‘Matoshri' (Thackeray family's residence in north Mumbai's Bandra) are always open for him. When he had differences in the past with the BJP leadership, I had spoken to him and stopped him. But now I will not stop him (from leaving the BJP),” the Sena chief said
