No threat to investments in Mah: CM

Mumbai, Sep 17 (UNI) Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has assured a delegation of Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) that there is no real threat to either domestic or foreign investment in Maharashtra.

''The bubble of cheap slogan-mongering and the valley of attacks by small political parties trying to make their presence felt in the public psyche was only a temporary phenomenon,'' he said.

The delegation, led by IMC President M N Chaini, and consisting of IMC Vice-President Gul Kripalani, former President Nanik Rupani, Managing Committee members -- Mark Fernandes and M K Chouhan -- and the IMC's Deputy Secretary-General Jitendra Sanghvi, met the Chief Minister yesterday.

They apprised him of the IMC Managing Committee's serious concern about Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray's threat to boycott films of Bachchans and also to coerce the owners of shops and establishments to prominently put up Marathi signboards.

Mr Deshmukh told the Chamber not to worry about such provocative outbursts, as the state's law and order machinery would adequately deal with them. In a liberal democracy anywhere in the world, such agitations were not uncommon, but citizens should not lose their sleep over them, as they would not last long, he said.

''Barring a negligible section of gullible population, people in Maharashtra do not suffer from the delusion of parochialism -- linguistic or communal,'' the Chief Minister stressed.

IMC President, in a press statement issued in Mumbai today, said, ''Some parties had been espousing narrow, regional, linguistic, sectorial, communal and even casteist interests to the detriment of our pan-India identity, and undermining national unity. It is necessary that all political parties in all states must adopt a larger national perspective and give priority to the national agenda over their narrow interests and sectorial constituencies.'' UNI JM SR SKB KP1708