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‘In Mumbai, dubo dubo ke maarenge’: Raj Thackeray fires back at Nishikant Dubey’s ‘patak patak ke’ remark
Raj Thackeray said if Hindi is imposed from Class 1 to 5, we will not hesitate to shut down schools in Maharashtra.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Friday hit back at Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey over his recent "patak patak ke maarenge" remark, daring him to come to Mumbai.
Raj Thackeray took aim at Nishikant Dubey’s comments, saying, “A BJP MP said ‘Marathi logon ko hum yahan pe patak patak ke maarenge’ (we will thrash Marathi people here mercilessly)... You come to Mumbai. Mumbai ke samundar mein dubo dubo ke maarenge. (We will thrash them by drowning them repeatedly in the Mumbai sea)," the MNS chief said at a rally in Mira Bhayandar.
His comments came in response to BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who, without naming anyone, had earlier challenged a “bahut bade boss” (very big boss) to step outside Maharashtra.
Dubey had said, “If you are courageous enough and beat those who speak Hindi, then you should beat all those who speak Urdu, Tamil, and Telugu... Come to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu – tumko patak patak ke maarenge (you will be thrashed badly, again and again). This anarchy won’t work.”
Recently, opposition parties, including the MNS, have escalated their opposition to the use of Hindi in Maharashtra. In one such incident, MNS workers allegedly assaulted a local shopkeeper in the district after he reportedly refused to speak in Marathi.
The ‘Hindi vs Marathi’ row has intensified in Maharashtra after the BJP-led state government rolled back two government resolutions mandating Hindi in primary schools, following public backlash and protests from opposition parties including MNS.
However, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has said the three-language formula will be implemented, and a dedicated committee will decide whether Hindi should be introduced in Class 1 or later.
Raj Thackeray also issued a strong warning to Fadnavis over the reported move to make Hindi compulsory in primary schools across the state.
Slamming the state government’s push for Hindi in primary education, he said, “When they tried it once, we had shut down shops, and now we will not hesitate to shut down schools if Hindi is imposed (from Class 1 to 5),” he added.
‘Will attach Mumbai to Gujarat’
Thackeray alleged that the government was using the imposition of Hindi as a tool to test public reaction, with the eventual aim of merging Mumbai with Gujarat. “By imposing Hindi, the government was testing the people's response as it eventually wanted to attach Mumbai to Gujarat,” news agency PTI quoted MNS chief as saying.
He further claimed that while Hindi was only “200 years old”, Marathi had a cultural and linguistic history of 2,500 to 3,000 years.
Questioning the outrage over regional issues, he said, “When migrants from Bihar were beaten up and driven away in Gujarat, it did not become an issue, but a minor incident in Maharashtra becomes a national issue.”
