MNS workers vandalise Amazon godowns in Pune,Mumbai over non-inclusion of Marathi

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers on Friday vandalised the godowns of Amazon, an e-commerce portal, in Mumbai and Pune, demanding inclusion of Marathi as

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers on Friday vandalised the godowns of Amazon, an e-commerce portal, in Mumbai and Pune, demanding inclusion of Marathi as a preferred language in their application and website.

MNS workers vandalised Amazon warehouse at Sakinaka, on Friday. (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

The workers resorted to ransacking the godowns at Kondhwa (in Pune) and Chandivali, after the Dindoshi court directed MNS chief Raj Thackeray to be present in the court, following Amazon’s complaint that their posters were torn by party workers.

MNS leader Nitin Sardesai said, “Amazon is anti-Marathi as it gives a choice of other languages to its buyers, but not Marathi. This provoked the Maharashtrians, hence they indulged in violence,”

Amazon has called this incident unfortunate. “This is an unfortunate incident at our site by external parties and we are working with the site team to ensure safety of people. We will continue to extend all cooperation to law enforcement as may be necessary. Safety of associates is our key priority and we will continue to ensure a safe working environment for all our associates,” said the spokesperson of Amazon India.

The MNS had demanded that e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart should include Marathi as a preferred language option on their apps, as other regional languages like Tamil, Telugu and Kannada were already incorporated.

Flipkart responded to the diktat and included Marathi as an option, while Amazon refused to do so.