Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey once again hit out at Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Tuesday over recent incidents of violence against people who do not speak Hindi in Maharashtra. The incidents of attacks by MNS workers have been reported amid the ongoing language row in the state.
Dubey shared a purported screenshot of a WikiLeaks entry of the 2007 incident of violence against Bihari students in Maharashtra. In response to the attack, several protests were carried out across Bihar.
Dubey claimed, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), that when Raj Thackeray doesn’t get public support, he resorts to “hoogalism".
“This is the Wikileaks of 2007. If Raj Thackeray does not get public support, he puts goons forward, meaning thuggery is his sole purpose, which he does just before the Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections out of fear of losing,” Dubey wrote.
He added that he is opposed to Thackeray’s “thuggery”.
Expressing his respect towards the Maratha community, Dubey wrote, “The Maratha community is always respectable, the country belongs to all of us. Where I am an MP, Maratha Madhulimaye ji has been an MP three times in a row. We made a Maratha win the Lok Sabha against Indira Gandhi ji. Thackeray, come to your senses, don’t make your fight about the Maratha community, we have contributed to Mumbai’s development and will continue to do so.”
‘Patak patak ke maarenge’
{{/usCountry}}Expressing his respect towards the Maratha community, Dubey wrote, “The Maratha community is always respectable, the country belongs to all of us. Where I am an MP, Maratha Madhulimaye ji has been an MP three times in a row. We made a Maratha win the Lok Sabha against Indira Gandhi ji. Thackeray, come to your senses, don’t make your fight about the Maratha community, we have contributed to Mumbai’s development and will continue to do so.”
‘Patak patak ke maarenge’
{{/usCountry}}Dubey's remarks come a day after he lashed out at the MNS chief over his "hit below their eardrum" advice to his party workers targeting non-Marathi speakers. While addressing the public during his recent reunion with cousin Uddhav Thackeray, Raj had said, “Be it Gujarati or anyone else here, must know Marathi, but there is no need to beat people for that if they don’t speak Marathi. But if someone shows useless drama, you must hit below their eardrums.”
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Raj advised against recording videos of such incidents and said, "Let the person beaten up tell that he has been beaten up."
In a sharp response to this, Dubey dared the 'bahut bade boss' to come out of Maharashtra and added, "Tumko patak patak ke maarenge" (you will be thrashed badly, again and again). He did not name anyone while making the remarks.
Dubey also dared Thackeray to also beat those who speak Urdu, Tamil or Telugu.
"If you are courageous enough and beat those who speak Hindi, then you should beat all those who speak Urdu, Tamil, and Telugu. If you are such a big 'boss', come out of Maharashtra, come to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu - 'tumko patak patak ke maarenge' (You will be thrashed). This anarchy won't work," he said.
On June 29, several workers of MNS allegedly beat up 48-year-old Babulal Choudhary, owner of Jodhpur Sweet in Thane’s Mira Road, for conversing in Hindi. Based on his complaint, Kashimira police registered an FIR on July 1 against seven unidentified persons. The police have now filed a charge sheet and proposed preventive action against all seven accused. T
Five persons were also detained on Saturday for allegedly vandalising investor Sushil Kedia's office in Mumbai's Worli after his post challenging MNS chief Raj Thackeray over speaking Marathi.