"No Language Should Be Imposed...": Aaditya Thackeray Amid Slapgate Row
Two assaults in four days by goons from Raj Thackeray's MNS - on a Mumbai man for not speaking Marathi and a Pune man for an 'objectionable' post - have roiled state politics. A third involving an ex-Uddhav Thackeray party MP has added to the unease.
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The first assault was late Sunday. A shopkeeper in Mumbai's Mira Road suburb was slapped by MNS party workers after a staff member and he did not speak in Marathi. The thugs filmed the assault of 48-year-old Babulal Chaudhary and posted it online.
The video went viral but the police acted against only after sustained reporting from NDTV; a case was filed two days after the assault and four of the seven were called for questioning a further two days later. None of the accused have been arrested so far.
The second took place Thursday. A man in Pune's Kothrud area was assaulted after an 'objectionable' social media post on Raj Thackeray. MNS workers descended on Kedar Soman's home and beat him up before calling the police, who then took him into custody.
In both instances the MNS refused to apologise or reprimand party workers, insisting any 'disrespect' to the Marathi language would invite a strong response. The party's Mumbai chief, Sandeep Deshpande, said the attack on Babulal Chaudhary was because he 'insulted' Marathi, and that on Kedar Soman was a warning to critics of Raj Thackeray.
More shocking, perhaps, was a minister's response. Home Minister Yogesh Kadam said 'action will be taken' against anyone who 'disrespects Marathi', but made no mention of punishing the MNS hooligans. "Marathi will have to be spoken in Maharashtra..."
NDTV also spoke to Amol Patil, one of the goons who took part in the assault on Chaudhary. Patil remains a free man despite a video of an attack that Deputy Commissioner of Police Prakash Gaikwad told NDTV is clearly a cognisable offence. He told NDTV Chaudhary's 'attitude' prompted the attack, and indicated he expected non-Marathi speakers to 'behave' themselves.
Meanwhile, also on Thursday, a video from the office of Rajan Vichare, an ex-MP from Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT), showed his aide heckling a Thane shop staff for not speaking Marathi, and an angry customer - Kiran Sawant - slapping them.
Aaditya Thackeray, Uddhav Thackeray's son, told reporters he had spoken to Vichare, who told him the incident was not about speaking, or not speaking, Marathi. "... he told me an official went to the shop to recharge his prepaid mobile phone but wasn't allowed to do so. This led to a fight... this has gone into a police complaint," he declared.
Thackeray - walking a tightrope between remarks that could be seen as defending the goons or interpreted by pro-Marathi groups as abandoning them - also said the Marathi language "shouldn't be insulted" but that "(no) language shouldn't be imposed" on people.
All of this plays out while the Thackeray family celebrate forcing the state government to roll back orders making Hindi the default third language for students from Class I to V. The 'Hindi imposition' row has made headlines - in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra - over claims the BJP-led federal government wants to subdue regional tongues.
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