Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Saturday called upon his party workers to stop the ‘movement’ of compulsory Marathi imposition on the people, in banks and other establishments.
In a post on X, Thackeray issued a letter written in Marathi that read, "I have seen a statement of the Chief Minister in which he has said that no one will be allowed to take the law in their hands. We are also not interested to take the law into our hands but it is the responsibility of the government to follow the law. I expect the government to follow the law regarding the use of Marathi language in all establishments across Maharashtra."
This comes hours after the party's Mumbai unit chief, Sandeep Deshpande issued a fresh threat for those who don't speak Marathi in Maharashtra. He said non-Marathi-speaking people would be driven out of the state.
He had said, "Living in Maharashtra and not speaking Marathi is the arrogance shown by traitors of Maharashtra. Those who don’t want to speak in Marathi can leave Maharashtra. Otherwise, we will show these Maharashtra traitors their place."
The controversy has escalated and garnered attention during the past few days after Thackeray's Gudi Padwa rally on March 30, where he reiterated MNS's stand on Marathi being made mandatory for official purposes.
After this MNS workers visited a bank branch in Lonavala and thrashed the manager for not speaking Marathi.
A couple of days ago, a supermarket employee was slapped for not speaking in Marathi. The visuals of the incident went viral on social media. Reacting to that, Deshpande had asserted that if someone knows Marathi and refuses to speak it, that is an offence.
If someone shows such an attitude, they will have to face the consequences, and this (assault) will continue, he added.