Marathi manoos can take on any oppressor: Maharashtra CM

The Sena chief was speaking on the 61st anniversary of Marmik – a weekly cartoon magazine – that Sena patriarch and his father late Bal Thackeray had started

Raking the sons-of-the-soil issue, Shiv Sena chief and Maharashtra chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said that the ‘Marathi manoos’ always fights against injustice. In a veiled attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Thackeray said that the Marathi manoos may be called lazy or may not be enterprising, but they have the strength to attack an oppressor, no matter how big it might be.

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray’s statements gain significance, given the party has taken up the sons-of-the-soil agenda to counter BJP in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls next February. (HT File)

The Sena chief, who was speaking on the 61st anniversary of Marmik – a weekly cartoon magazine – said that Sena patriarch and his father late Bal Thackeray had started it when “outsiders were encroaching upon the rights of Marathi manoos” in Mumbai.

“Marathi manoos might be called lazy by some, they might not be an entrepreneur, but Marathi manoos never backs away from a fight against injustice. No matter how big the oppressor, from generations, Marathi manoos has always shown the strength to attack them against injustice. That strength was there, it is there, and will remain tomorrow as well,” the Sena chief said.

Thackeray’s statements gain significance, given the party has taken up the sons-of-the-soil agenda to counter BJP in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls next February. The Sena has used the Marathi manoos plank in two recent incidents – when Sena-BJP workers clashed outside Sena Bhavan and after BJP leader Prasad Lad made a controversial statement saying that if the time comes they will demolish the Sena Bhavan.

In his speech for the event held virtually, Thackeray recalled Marmik’s journey and how his grandfather Prabhodhankar, father and his uncle Srikant were involved in the Samyukta Maharashtra (United Maharashtra) movement for the creation of a separate state. He said that through the Samyukta Maharashtra movement, they attained Mumbai.

“Initially the role of Marmik was to entertain Marathi manoos, but looking at the situation where outsiders encroached upon the rights of Marathi manoos in their homes, the outlook [of Marmik] changed from providing entertainment to leading an attack against the injustice. Gradually, the movement led to the formation of an organisation that we now know by the name Shiv Sena,” he added.