Bal Thackeray terms Manmohan Singh 'politically impotent'

Mumbai - After Time magazine called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh an "underachiever", Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Tuesday termed him "politically impotent" and called for a nationwide revolution.

Thackeray said people had been wondering what underachiever actually means. "In our (Thackeri bhasha) language, it implies the country's prime minister is 'politically impotent'," he said in an editorial in the party's mouthpiece Saamna.

Thackeray, however, clarified that any opinion by Time magazine does not mean a person becomes big or small, since even that magazine is compelled to carry on its "business".

Some time ago, the same magazine had portrayed Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as the "most hated" Indian politician. "But he was hated only by the anti-Hindutva forces," Thackeray claimed.

Referring to the Time article on Manmohan Singh, he said: "Until now, the domestic media was rapping on his head, now even the international media is kicking him."

In these difficult times, Thackeray contended that it was high time the prime minister and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi handed over the country to a person with a fighting spirit - "an inspiring person who can fight the corruption, the economic woes, the terrorism, and other forces inimical to the country's interests".

For this, Thackeray said, only the Shiv Sena's "Shivrai" was capable of giving the right direction to the country.

"Is Maharashtra ready for it, especially since it is also being taken to the dumps by a Manmohan Singh 'copy' (referring to, but without naming chief minister Prithviraj Chavan). There is a need for a revolution from Maharashtra to Delhi," he declared, sounding the bugle for the next assembly elections in the state due in 2014.