The Shiv Sena on Thursday said that the Ahmedabad–Mumbai bullet train was not the dream of the people of India, but of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “We are getting a bullet train without asking for it,” the Shiv Sena said in its mouthpiece Saamana. “We do not know exactly which problem this problem will solve.”

The Shiv Sena’s statements were an apparent reference to Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe inaugurating the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project on Thursday. The National Democratic Alliance partner said that India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation for several projects, including the Bhakra Nangal dam and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. “All these projects were needed for the nation. Does this bullet train fit into the needs of the country?” the Saamana editorial asked.

The Shiv Sena claimed that the Maharashtra government would have to shell out Rs 30,000 crore for the project. “The demands for farm loan waivers were being made since many years. Nobody sought a bullet train,” the editorial said. “Modi’s dream is not of the common man but of the rich and industrialists.” The Shiv Sena also rubbished the idea that the project would generate employment in the country. It said this was untrue because Japan would supply the materials as well as the labour for the project.