‘Classical’ tag for Marathi: Raj Thackeray’s MNS to send 10,000 postcards to PM Modi

With an eye on upcoming state Assembly elections, the Raj Thackeray-led party attacked the BJP in the state, saying it is not putting enough pressure on the Centre with regard to the issue.

In an attempt to build pressure on the Central government to grant the ‘classical language’ status to Marathi, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) said it will send 10,000 post cards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In an attempt to build pressure on the Central government to grant the ‘classical language’ status to Marathi, Raj Thackeray-led party said it will send 10,000 post cards to PM Modi. (Kunal Patil/HT File Photo)

With an eye on upcoming state Assembly elections, the Raj Thackeray-led party attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state, saying it is not putting enough pressure on the Centre with regard to the issue.

As part of the ‘postcard campaign’, the party will get 10,000 Marathi-speaking people to send postcards to “put pressure to clear the pending proposal,” said Gajanan Kale, Navi Mumbai head of MNS, in a letter announcing the plan.

Kale said that it has been more than four years since the committee headed by professor Ranganath Pathare gave its recommendations in favour of according Marathi the status of a classical language.

“Still the Centre is dilly-dallying to take a decision… The state government too has not put pressure on the Centre. Therefore, MNS will send 10,000 postcards to the Prime Minister from Marathi-speaking people demanding that their language be accorded the classical language status,” the letter by Kale reads.

Currently, six languages – Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odiya – have been given the status of classical languages.