Do not spit in the plate from which you have eaten: Thackeray

Mumbai, Mar 5 (UNI) Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has strongly condemned the tirade against Maharashtra by the Bihar MPs in the Parliament saying such behaviour was akin to spitting in the plate from which they have eaten for the past several years.

Mr Thackeray made the vitriolic attack on the Bihar MPs, particularly Prabhunath Singh, in a caustic editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece ''Saamna'' today. The editorial is entitled ''Ek Bihar sau bimar, khallya mithala jaga'', which if loosely translated, means ''One Bihari spreads a hundred illnesses. Be loyal to the salt you have eaten''.

Mr Thackeray goes on to say that during the recent anti-migrants stir, few Hindi-speaking persons were beaten up but this was blown out of proportions by the electronic media such that now the issue figures in Parliament despite other burning matters facing the country.

Seeking to downplay the anti-migrants stir, Mr Thackeray said in the editorial that a Mumbai-based Bihari cultural organisation had, a few days back, sent letters to leaders in Bihar saying they were facing no problems in Mumbai and the leaders should stop politicising the issue.

Mr Thackeray has been particularly severe upon Janata dal (U) MP Prabhunath Singh.

The rightful place for Mr Singh, who is facing charges of murder and dacoities, should have been in jail, but unfortunately he is in Parliament, the editorial said.

Taking a dig at Prabhunath Singh's statement in Parliament that Biharis are the most cultured people since they live on the banks of the Ganga, and that Mumbaikars nurse rotten thoughts because they live by the saline sea, Mr Thackeray, while taunting Prabhunath Singh as ''Mahatma'', quipped that the entire nation knows as to how the Holy Ganges has become sullied with ''blood and corruption''.

The editorial has further claimed that there is an anti-Bihari and anti-Hindi wave elsewhere in the country too, be it Assam, South India and even in Punjab and Chandigarh.

Over the past one month, an anti-Bihari campaign has taken precedence in Maharashtra after the issue was sparked off by Mr Thackeray's nephew and estranged Shiv Sena leader Raj Thackeray, who now heads the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

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