Latest news with #MaharashtraNavnirmanSena
India Today
4 hours ago
- India Today
PM begins 5-nation tour with Ghana visit, Dalai Lama defies China, announces succession plan
27:56 This episode of Newstrack focusses on a viral video from Thane, Maharashtra, showing Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers assaulting a shopkeeper for not speaking Marathi. The incident has sparked outrage and debates on linguistic chauvinism.
Indian Express
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Delayed opening of Carnac Bridge leads to first united protest by Sena UBT–MNS
The Sena UBT and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), led by the estranged cousins Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray, respectively, held their first joint protest Wednesday against the prolonged delay in opening the newly reconstructed Carnac Bridge in South Mumbai. Workers from both parties reached the bridge and attempted to open the crucial link in South Mumbai. However, their attempts were thwarted by the Mumbai police, who detained the protestors and took them to the Pydhonie police station. The joint protest came on the heels of Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray's announcement of a 'victory rally' planned for July 5 after the Maharashtra government scrapped the orders over the three-language policy. Both Uddhav and Raj Thackeray had earlier signalled openness to an alliance between the two parties. Meanwhile, Sena UBT MLA Aaditya Thackeray, in a social media post, said that their attempts to open the bridge were prevented by the police, on orders from the state government. 'The police today, on orders from the state government, prevented our local unit from opening the Carnac Bridge for Mumbaikars today. The bridge is finally ready and has been so for a week. Why does the government not open a fully ready bridge for people?,' wrote Aaditya. Speaking to The Indian Express, Arvind Gawde, MNS vice-president, said, 'While initially there were some pending works such as installation of lights, the structure has been completely ready for past 10- 15 days. However, the structure remained closed, leaving people to wait for hours in traffic as all the load comes on the freeway. Three days ago, we had written a letter to the traffic police, appealing to them to open the bridge.' On Wednesday, the delayed opening was also flagged in the Maharashtra Assembly by Congress MLA from Mumbadevi Amin Patel. Built at Rs 60 crore, the Carnac Bridge runs between Masjid and CSMT stations in South Mumbai, providing a direct link to motorists commuting towards P D'Mello Road. The new structure was constructed after the old Carnac Bridge, a 154-year-old structure, was razed in 2022 after a structural audit deemed the British-era bridge unfit for daily usage. The construction work of the bridge concluded in June. However, the opening remained delayed owing to pending clearances from the Central Railways as the bridge passes above the railway tracks. Responding to questions, senior BMC officials alluded that the bridge is likely to open for vehicular movement over the next few days.
Scroll.in
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Rush Hour: 2 get bail in Parliament breach case, Sheikh Hasina sentenced to jail and more
We're building a brand-new studio to bring you bold ground reports, sharp interviews, hard-hitting podcasts, explainers and more. The Delhi High Court granted bail to two persons accused in the 2023 Parliament security breach case. The bench barred Neelam Azad and Mahesh Kumawat from holding press conferences, giving interviews and posting anything on social media about the incident. The two argued that the police had wrongly invoked the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against them, and that their actions did not construe an act of terrorism. On December 13, 2023, two men, Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D, jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors' gallery and opened gas canisters. Outside Parliament, Azad and another man, Amol Dhanraj Shinde, opened smoke canisters and shouted 'stop dictatorship'. All four were arrested in connection with the breach. A day later, the police arrested Lalit Jha, allegedly the mastermind behind the incident, and Kumawat, a co-accused. Read on. Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to six months in prison for contempt of court over a leaked phone call. She was tried in absentia. In the purported conversation with Shakil Akanda Bulbul, the former leader of her party's student wing, Hasina had allegedly said: 'I have had 227 cases filed against me, so I have received a licence to kill 227 people.' The tribunal ruled that the comment showed contempt for the judiciary and was intended to undermine legal processes. This is the first time that the ousted prime minister has been sentenced in any case since she fled the country in August 2024, after several weeks of widespread student-led protests against her government. She has also been charged by the tribunal with crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the protests. Read on. The Dalai Lama said that a trust he founded had the sole right to decide on his successor, and that no one else had the authority to interfere in the matter. The statement by the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists came in the context of Beijing's stand that the succession of the 14th Dalai Lama needed the Chinese government's approval. The leader said that he had made it clear in 1969 that the people concerned should decide whether the Dalai Lama's reincarnations should continue. China rejected the Dalai Lama's statement, saying that his reincarnation needed to be approved by Beijing. The succession must follow Chinese laws as well as 'religious rituals and historical conventions', Beijing said. Read on. Seven unidentified persons, believed to be members of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, have been booked for assaulting a shopkeeper in Thane district's Mira Road for not speaking in Marathi. Babulal Khimji Chaudhary stated in his police complaint that members of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena came to his shop on Sunday. When a worker in the shop spoke to them in Hindi, they got angry. They allegedly abused the worker for not speaking Marathi. 'Two of the men came to me and again said that I need to know Marathi if I have to work and then assaulted me after an argument,' said Chaudhary. He added that the suspects made a video of the incident and uploaded it on social media.
Indian Express
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Maharashtra's controversial third language policy: Why National Curriculum Framework recommends a third language from Class 6
After Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that the government resolutions introducing a third language from Class 1 in state board schools had been scrapped, the controversy has been put to rest for now. The government has also set up a committee, led by economist and educationist Dr Narendra Jadhav, to re-examine the issue. Following Fadnavis's Sunday announcement, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Shiv Sena UBT declared this rollback as a victory ahead of their planned protest on July 5. Difference between national and state curricula There is a significant difference in the stages at which the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) and Maharashtra's State Curriculum Framework for School Education (SCF-SE) introduce a third language in school education. According to the New Education Policy (NEP) floated by the Centre, school education is divided into a 5+3+3+4 pedagogical and curricular structure, replacing the current 10+2 format. The first five years comprise the Foundational Stage, which includes three years of preschool, Class 1, and Class 2. The next three years are the Preparatory Stage, consisting of classes 3 to 5. The next three years constitute the Middle Stage, from classes 6 to 8, and the next four years comprise the Secondary Stage, from classes 9 to 12. NEP says the three-language formula will continue to be implemented with greater flexibility, and no language will be imposed on any state. The purpose of the NCF-SE is to help bring about the changes recommended in NEP. According to NCF-SE, R1 and R2 — the first and second school languages — are introduced from the Preparatory Stage, and by the end of the Middle Stage, a student is expected to understand and appreciate the distinctive features of the language, engage in collaborative discussions, and read and write independently in both the languages. The framework adds a third language is to be introduced in the Middle Stage, which is from Class 6 onwards. 'A new third Language, R3, is introduced in this (Middle) stage. Students acquire familiarity with the spoken form of this language, along with the basics of reading and writing.' However, Maharashtra's SCF-SE differed from NCF by calling for a 'detailed introduction' to R3 in the Preparatory Stage, which is Class 1 to Class 5. 'For this stage and all subsequent stages, efforts should be made to bring the language courses to the same level of 100 marks for R1, R2 and R3,' it says. Expert speak Dhir Jhingran, Member, National Steering Committee for development of NCF, disagrees with formally introducing a third language in school education in Class 1 or Class 3. Jhingran, who is also the founder of the Language and Learning Foundation, told The Indian Express that children should focus on developing a strong proficiency in their first language, and a second language in the early years. 'And there the focus is on building the foundation of strong literacy in two languages, which means comprehension, reading, fluency, writing, et cetera. So it requires those five to seven years to build this kind of proficiency in two languages.' 'If the child has natural exposure to languages, for example, in a household, the grandmother speaks something else, the mother and the father speak something else, you'll find a child is naturally able to pick up to three languages. But the problem is that if a child is formally taught, once you introduce Hindi or whatever as a subject, there'll be a textbook, there'll be teaching, the child has to do writing and there'll be copying work taught in a very dreary and didactic manner, which makes it very difficult for the child to actually learn a language,' he says. He says acquiring a language and gaining literacy in a language are two different matters. 'Acquiring language means that a child at home picks up words and is able to speak, because we work through gestures, and the child picks up in different ways. But once you say literacy, the child has to understand which sound is for what symbol and how do you combine what are the spellings of different words, etc. It's an overload for the child'. Following political and academic backlash over the introduction of the third language, School Education Minister Dada Bhuse announced at the end of June that in classes 1 and 2, students would only be taught oral skills, with written skills to be introduced from class 3. However, this is still three years before the NEP recommendation of Class 6. Jhingran also says increasing the curriculum burden on a child goes contrary to the goals of NEP. 'Someone may argue that in Maharashtra, all children know how to listen to Hindi, and so starting it earlier is less problematic than, say, starting French in grade three. But again, if you teach it as a subject, you're adding to the child's workload. Science, social science, and math curricula are not going away, but you're adding one more subject on which the child will be tested. So that is curricular overload. And NEP actually very clearly says, you should try to reduce the curricular burden.' 'Freedom to make necessary changes' The Maharashtra Government provided various reasons for deciding to implement the third language from Class 1. In a statement shared before the scrapping of the GRs, the School Education and Sports Department said, 'Students enjoy learning a new language and can easily learn it at an easy level at a young age.' It added that in Maharashtra, 10 per cent of students study in non-Marathi medium government-run schools, such as those offering Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, and Urdu. These students are taught Marathi and English from Class 1 in addition to their medium language, and they learn three languages. Therefore, it stated, if students from Marathi-medium schools are not taught a third language, they will lose out on Academic Bank of Credit points for classes 1 to 5. The state also argued that Hindi is familiar to children in Maharashtra from a young age; therefore, it will not academically burden the students. 'The Supreme Court has already made it clear that the National Education Policy 2020 is not binding on any state in the country. Therefore, the state has the freedom to make necessary changes in its own education policy or the National Education Policy 2020…' However, it remains to be seen how the Jadhav committee will re-examine the issue of introducing a third language in school education in Maharashtra in its report, which will be submitted after three months. Soham is a Correspondent with the Indian Express in Pune. A journalism graduate, he was a fact-checker before joining the Express. Soham currently covers education and is also interested in civic issues, health, human rights, and politics. ... Read More
The Hindu
16 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Thane food stall owner thrashed by MNS workers for not speaking in Marathi
A food stall owner in Maharashtra's Thane district was beaten up allegedly by activists of a regional political party for not speaking in Marathi, police said on Wednesday (July 2, 2025). The incident took place on Tuesday in Bhayander area. A video of the incident, which went viral on social media on Tuesday night, showed some of the attackers wearing scarves having the symbol of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). While purchasing food, one of the them asked the stall owner to speak in Marathi, to which he questioned them back. Language of unity: Editorial on Maharashtra and the issue of Hindi This annoyed the man, who shouted at the stall owner. Some others who were with the man joined him and slapped the stall owner, a police official said. Based on the stall owner's complaint, the Kashimira police registered an FIR against unidentified persons under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and a probe was on into the case, the official said. Members of the MNS have been trying to push for the use of Marathi language in commercial establishments and banks in the State.
