'Separate politics from language': 26/11 hero Praveen Teotia slams Thackerays over Marathi row; urges to not divide nation
MNS
chief
Raj Thackeray
and his party amid the ongoing row over the Marathi language.
Responding to the recent rally by Raj and Uddhav Thackeray, Teotia said, 'When the 26/11 terrorist attack happened, their (MNS) so-called warriors hid and could not be found anywhere. He (Raj Thackeray) himself, along with Uddhav Thackeray and his family, could also not be found.'
He said that people who saved others 'such as army personnel, are primarily from UP and Bihar... I was there, handled the situation, and faced the terrorists.
I am also from UP and come from a village of Chaudhary Charan Singh.'
While he takes pride in the Marathi language, Teotia asserted that language should be kept separate from politics.
'Don't teach us politics. Separate politics from language. We take pride in Marathi, but people shouldn't politicise it. If you want to do politics, focus on developmental work and jobs.'
The former marine also criticised Raj Thackeray and the MNS, alleging that they have not carried out any developmental work so far.
Taking to social media platform X, Teotia recalled the 26/11 attacks, saying he had bled for Maharashtra despite being from another state, and urged people not to divide the nation.
"I saved Mumbai on 26/11. I bleed for Maharashtra. I'm from UP. I saved the Taj Hotel. Where were Raj Thakre's so Called Warriors? Don't divide the Nation. Smiles don't require any Language."
In a separate post, he expressed pride in the Marathi language and Maratha warriors, urging people not to let "losers" create divisions.
He also highlighted ongoing grave issues such as unemployment, poverty, sexual violence, and the large backlog of pending court cases.
His comments come after a mega rally in Mumbai where Raj and Uddhav Thackeray shared the stage to mark the Maharashtra government's withdrawal of controversial language-related government resolutions (GRs).
The April 16 GR had made Hindi compulsory as a third language for Classes 1 to 5 in English and Marathi medium schools.
However, after protests, the state amended the GR on June 17 to make Hindi optional. Eventually, both the original and amended GRs were scrapped altogether on June 29.
At the June 29 'victory' rally, Raj Thackeray said, 'I don't have anything against Hindi, no language is bad. It takes a lot of effort to build a language. We Marathi people ruled over a lot of states during the Maratha Empire, but we never enforced Marathi on those parts. They started with the experiment of imposing Hindi over us and were trying to test if we would not have opposed it, they would have gone upto making Mumbai separate from Maharashtra.
'
The event, held at the NSCI Dome in Worli, avoided party flags and symbols and was projected as a joint cultural stand by Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS.
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