Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party President Ajit Pawar waded into the language debate raging in Maharashtra last Thursday. This debate was triggered by two events: the joint rally by Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray against ‘Hindi imposition’ and the assault on a Gujarati shopkeeper by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena workers.
Shinde, the longest-serving Deputy Chief Minister in his state’s history, said, as per PTI:
“Nothing will happen to someone who says that we are living in Maharashtra but can’t speak very good Marathi. However, we respect the language and will try to learn it.”
He also added:
“It doesn’t always happen, people react badly many times. You should respect the language of the state you live in, at least a little bit.”
On the face of it, this doesn’t seem an unreasonable proposition. However, a comment like this from the Deputy Chief Minister carries ominous portents.
The attack on a shopkeeper simply doing his business isn’t a defence of Marathi’s primacy in the state but an example of vicious and cynical politics. The fact that the shopkeeper was Gujarati also doesn’t seem to be a coincidence. This was, most likely, a calculated ploy to target the ethnicity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The points raised by Nitesh Rane should also be remembered here. The violence and aggression seems to be reserved for harmless Hindus and not members of the Muslim community who prefer Urdu with much greater aplomb. To this may be added the point that South Mumbai and its elites are notorious for their English-centric approach and unfamiliarity with Marathi, Hindi, or any other Indian language.
Yet, neither the rootless and West-aping Bollywood celebrities nor the Urdu-speaking members of the Muslim community are in the line of fire. It’s the Gujaratis who seem to be the biggest target. This is nothing but a desperate attempt by two parties – Shiv Sena (Uddhav) and MNS – to regain a footing in Maharashtra politics.
This cynical attempt should be nipped in the bud and a no-nonsense approach should be adopted to maintain law and order. Instead, the Deputy Chief Minister is giving a sermon on how to avoid being beaten up by members of the opposition parties. Does this mean that the state government is paralysed and can’t control the misbehaviour of lumpen elements?
The language issue is a non-issue. An inability to speak a language isn’t born out of contempt for that language but an unfamiliarity with it. If Mumbai has to be the financial capital of India, not to mention a cosmopolitan city, it is bound to have a large population of non-Marathi speakers, including some foreigners. Would the goons of MNS and Shiv Sena (Uddhav) be willing to beat up MNC executives from foreign countries also for non speaking Marathi?
Ajit Pawar’s words suggest a disinclination to deal with the opposition’s vicious language-based politics. As a minister of this government, he should be lecturing and acting against the goons who are harassing innocent Hindus rather than sermonizing to them.