Amid the language row in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray addressed the Thane assault case and said the incident should not be viewed as a Marathi versus non-Marathi divide. Aaditya Thackeray clarified that the issue stemmed from something as simple as not allowing someone to charge their phone.
Aaditya Thackeray said, “I talked to Rajan Vichare ji on the video, and he told me that this is neither about Marathi and non-Marathi, nor about Maharashtra and North India, nor about any community or society.”
“An official had gone into the shop to charge his phone and he wasn’t allowed to do so, which led to a fight and the person was beaten… A lady saved the person… This has gone into a police complaint,” Thackeray said.
He further added that “we want that our mother tongue Marathi is not insulted and no language is forcefully imposed. We don’t want anybody to take the law into their hands, but when it is the other way round and Marathi or Maharashtra is insulted, things can escalate.”
The issue pertains to an assault case wherein a man was beaten up after a dispute over mobile recharge which led to a quarrel outside the Thane railway station. Also Read | ‘Acting smart in Maharashtra?’ UP cab driver gets thrashed despite speaking in Marathi | Watch viral video
A video of the incident which took place on Tuesday night went viral.
According to the reports, the complainant, a 45-year-old man, was apparently drunk when he visited the mobile recharge shop, said an official of Naupada police station. There was an altercation, and the shopkeeper and his friends allegedly beat up the man.
As the situation escalated, some passersby also gathered near the shop. Traffic police personnel later rushed to the spot and prevented the situation from deteriorating further.
An FIR was registered but no arrests have been made so far, the officer said.
The incident comes on the heel of another case in which a member of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) assaulted an elderly North Indian restaurant owner on Mumbai’s Mira Road allegedly for not speaking in Marathi, reigniting the language debate.
In the viral video, three men, allegedly MNS workers, slapped a restaurant owner when the latter refused to speak in Marathi but argued that “all languages are spoken in Maharashtra”.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra minister Yogesh Kadam issued a warning that laws will be imposed if anyone “disrespects” the Marathi language.
“In Maharashtra, you have to speak Marathi. If you don’t know Marathi, your attitude shouldn’t be that you won’t speak Marathi. If anyone disrespects Marathi in Maharashtra, we will enforce our laws,” Kadam told ANI.