Raj Thackeray shuts out Hindi media from his press meet

Mumbai, Feb 9 (UNI) An aggressive Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray today restrained reporters from Hindi electronic media from attending his press conference held at the party head office here today.

The reporters, waiting outside the venue, criticised Raj Thackeray for denying them entry and said that what he was doing was not fair and he should have called all the mediapersons for the conference.

The reporters, who were denied entry, waited at the gate of the party office ''Rajgad'' and took details from other reporters as they came out of the press conference, which lasted around 45 minutes.

Mr Thackeray, while addressing the press conference, said that during the past week, the media, particlularly the Hindi electronic media and newspapers, had launched a campaign against him and blamed him for the violence in the metropolis and other parts of the state. But, they had conveniently forgotten to mention the ''language used by people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who had migrated to Mumbai and the disrespect shown by them towards the Maharashtrians''.

He added sarcastically that if the media wanted to decide on his arrest and other issues, then it should also take decisions on his behalf.

Mr Thackeray said he had invited only selected mediapersons for his press conference as he wanted to interact with reporters who could speak Marathi. The list of such reporters is available with his party office, he said.

UNI ST-GS MAZ VD RS1928