Launching yet another attack on the Narendra Modi government, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray lamented that little has changed ever since the new BJP government took over at the Centre. “Every morning when we open a newspaper, we read the same news that bored us in the past. Farmers’ suicides, protests by unemployed people, crimes against women... We always feel that we have been here before,” Thackeray said in an interview to party mouthpiece Saamna. Reminding the Sena ally BJP that it had come to power with the promise of “acche din”, Thackeray warned that it should not cheat them after its electoral victory. “Even 50 years will not be enough to clean up the mess left behind by the previous government, but we have to do a lot of work in five years. You promised acche din to people. You cannot cheat them now,” Thackeray said. However, seeking to hold out an olive branch to the PM after his hard-hitting comments, Thackeray felt that Modi was the strongest leader the country had in a long while. “People still believe that if anyone can do something for the country, it is Narendra Modi. We now have a strong leader at the Centre,” he said. Despite the mild sops to its national ally, the tone of the first part of Thackeray’s three-part interview to Saamna was largely critical. Thackeray, who is also the Chief Editor of Saamna, hit out at the Modi government’s approach to the separatists in Kashmir. Hitting out at the BJP’s tie-up with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s Peoples Democratic Party in Kashmir, Thackeray questioned the BJP’s changed attitude towards the regional party. “...what was your stand towards Sayeed before the election? How could you forget his style of politics,” Thackeray asked.
