Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut launched a counterattack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on a comparison between the Marathi language row and the Pahalgam terror attack, saying it shows the party’s ‘mindset’.
This comes after Maharashtra minister Ashish Selar compared terrorists asking for religion before shooting tourists in Pahalgam to people being assaulted for not speaking Marathi.
Raut asked if the Marathi language wouldn't be in Maharashtra, would it be in Pakistan?
"A few people refuse to accept the culture and the Marathi language. If not in Maharashtra, where would the Marathi language be - in Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Nepal?... If people do a movement for any language, Ashish Shelar compares them to terrorists of Pahalgam, it's wrong, and it shows the BJP's mindset," ANI news agency quoted Raut as saying.
Earlier, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray had said that if his party workers had to be goons for the Marathi language, then they were goons.
The row began when some workers from Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) allegedly assaulted a shopkeeper for not speaking Marathi.
What did Ashish Selar say in the Marathi language row?
{{/usCountry}}The row began when some workers from Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) allegedly assaulted a shopkeeper for not speaking Marathi.
What did Ashish Selar say in the Marathi language row?
{{/usCountry}}Maharashtra minister Ashish Selar on Sunday compared the assault to the Pahalgam terror attack, saying that terrorists shot tourists after asking for their religion and that in Maharashtra, people are being assaulted based on their language.
"Marathi is not a political issue for us," PTI quoted him as saying.
"In the Pahalgam terror attack, people were asked about their religion before being shot. Here, people are being attacked based on their language. It is disappointing," he said.
Without naming anyone, he added that the state is watching how these leaders are "enjoying" other Hindus being beaten up.
Backing Shelar’s remarks and the parallel he drew with the Pahalgam attack, union minister Ramdas Athawale told ANI, “Raj Thackeray’s men are repeating in Mumbai what happened in Pahalgam, it should be condemned.”
He also posed a question to Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray that “if people from the Hindu community are being attacked, would you sit quietly, do you not follow Balasaheb’s line of thinking?”