'Apologise To Raj Thackeray': MNS Workers Assault Man For Not Speaking Marathi

Another man has been beaten up in Maharashtra by MNS workers for not speaking in Marathi and saying, "I will not speak in the language. What will you do?".

A video which has gone viral shows a man confronting a worker at a public toilet in a bus stop in Nanded, alleging that women were being charged Rs 5 to use the facilities.

As he begins shooting the video, the man asks the worker what his name is and the worker refuses to divulge it, asking whether the man thinks of himself as some big shot. The man tells the worker he will complain and is asked, in Hindi, to leave.

This prompts the man to ask the worker to talk in Marathi and he replies, "What will you do if I don't? What will you do? Go." A woman next to the man also argues with the worker and the man shooting the video says he will show the worker what he can do.

In another video, the man walks up to what appears to be the ticket office at the bus stop and asks the employees whether using the public toilet is not free for women. When the employees say it is, the man says he will show the video to (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) chief Raj Thackeray's people.

"Whether it is free or not, whether he should speak in Marathi or not, the man will know tomorrow. He's charging Rs 5 from women," the man says.

Assault

The next video, from the day after, shows the worker surrounded in the public toilet by a few men, one of whom appears to punch him in the face. As another man tries to intervene and stop them, the men slap the worker three times, asking, "You are abusing women? Will you speak in Marathi or not? Do you know Marathi?"

"You don't know Marathi? If you had said you don't know the language and that you were learning, would we be here?" one of the men says.

As the worker falls at the man's feet and apologises, he is taken out of the toilet. 

The men, now wearing scarves with the MNS symbol and name, make the worker hold his ears and repeat after them in Marathi: "I apologise to the Marathi people and Raj Thackeray. I will not make such a mistake again."

"You will learn Marathi, right? Learn it quickly," the worker is told by one of the men. 

Flare-Up

The Marathi issue, amid protests by the MNS and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) over what they called "Hindi imposition" in Maharashtra in the guise of implementation of the three-language policy in the state, had flared up earlier this month when a shopkeeper was slapped multiple times by MNS workers in Thane for asking them why speaking in Marathi should be compulsory. 

A shopkeeper was also assaulted in Vikhroi a few days later. 

In a post on X last week, Raj Thackeray said he is proud of his "soldiers" for giving people a "befitting response", which stems from their "love" of the language. 

"When someone tries to drive a nail into the throat of the Marathi people, I feel proud that my soldiers of Maharashtra slap that person, not out of personal jealousy, rather for my language and my Marathi people," he wrote.

Several others, including Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, have condemned the attacks and said resorting to violence over people not speaking Marathi is unacceptable.