Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Tuesday took on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat over his recent comments in Mumbai about language row, warning him against “force-fitting Hindutva”. He also advised the RSS against taking any “indirect political stance”. Mr. Bhagwat, in a recent lecture in Mumbai, had called the language row over Hindi and Marathi a “localised disease”.
“Linguistic and regional identities will continue to exist in this country, and they will certainly continue to exist in Maharashtra as well,” Mr. Thackeray said in a post on X. He also dared the RSS to reprimand the government for the “imposition” of Hindi in the country, and asked him to speak on the “spectacle of politics around cow slaughter”, India’s rising beef exports and the “objectionable dances” during Kanwar Yatra.
“If love for one’s language and one’s region seem like a disease to Mr. Bhagwat, then we would like to point out that this ‘disease’ is rampant across majority of the states in this country. From Karnataka to Tamil Nadu in the South, there are strong linguistic and provincial identities. The same sentiment exists in West Bengal, Punjab, and even Gujarat,” the MNS chief said. The history of the basis of the reorganisation of States was key to understanding the local population’s sentiments, he added.
