Nitish takes on Raj Thackeray for threatening Biharis

New Delhi/Mumbai: Political voices across party lines have united in condemning Raj Thackeray's comments, which accused Hindi news channels of distorting his statements about people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and threatened to shut them down if they continued to misquote his speeches.

"I want to tell the Hindi news channel to first understand the issue before it is broadcast...otherwise we know how to deal with it," Mr Thackeray had said.

Lashing out at the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, "I request media to boycott people who make public communication violent. He gives such statements because he is being given coverage."

"A case of sedition should be initiated against him," said Left leader Prakash Karat.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday charged the Centre and Maharashtra government with failing to rein in Mr Thackeray for his threat to throw Biharis out of Maharashtra.

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"The MNS chief's diatribes against Biharis pose a challenge to all governments to deal with a person who has been holding out threat to the migrant people. People have the constitutional right to live and work in any part of the country," he told reporters.

"It is the duty of the central government and the government of a state (Maharashtra) to take note of the conduct of a person like Thackeray and deal sternly with such elements," Mr Kumar said.

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Demanding strong action against the MNS chief, a visibly angry Mr Kumar asked as to how the Centre and the Maharashtra government would deal with terrorism if they could not rein in a person like Mr Thackeray.

He also slammed the Maharashtra government for not taking any action against Mr Thackeray for his hate speech against Biharis and apparently allowing him to speak on its behalf to question the Bihar government for protesting the arrest of one Abdul Qadir - an accused in desecration of the martyrs memorial in Mumbai last month - from his native Sitamarhi district by Mumbai Police without informing their local counterpart.

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"Has the Mumbai police and the Maharashtra government outsourced governance to Thackeray?" he asked.

On Mr Thackeray's threat to declare Bihari migrants as "infiltrators" and drive them out of Mumbai and Maharashtra, Mr Kumar said, "If he (Thackeray) challenges the Constitution and democratic rights of the people, then it is a challenge to all governments to deal with the brazen disrespect."

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The Bihar Chief Minister said he will write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about it soon and demand action against the MNS chief.

Mr Kumar had said yesterday there was unanimity among all political parties in Bihar who were against Mr Thackeray's hate campaign and demanded strong action against him for his "unconstitutional" and "undemocratic" conduct.

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(With inputs from PTI)