'Will Teach You MNS Style': Leader's Threat To Bank Official Over Marathi

The language issue reared its head again on Thursday after a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader confronted a bank official in Mumbai for refusing to speak in Marathi and threatened to teach him a lesson in "MNS style". The leader said later that the official had submitted a written apology and the bank has also given him an assurance that action would be taken. 

A video that is being widely shared shows MNS Secretary Anish Khandagale having an argument with a Bank of Maharashtra employee in Mumbai's Mahim and intimidating him when he refuses to speak in Marathi. 

"You don't know Marathi?" Khandagale asks the bank official, and when he replies in the negative, continues, "Why? You are working in the Bank of Maharashtra in Mumbai and you don't know Marathi? If you want to stay in Maharashtra, you have to learn Marathi."

The bank official argues that Bank of Maharashtra is nationalised and points out that he is from Madhya Pradesh. He then asks where it is written that he needs to learn Marathi and this makes an angry Khandagale retort, "You want it in writing. Wait, I'll show you."

The MNS leader then turns to the camera and says the official had behaved in an arrogant manner with a customer who had approached the bank for a loan. "He has said he won't speak in Marathi. On behalf of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, we will now show him what happens next," he says. 

When the bank employee walks away, the MNS leader tells another official that he wants him transferred. "I have told the branch manager he should be transferred. Otherwise, we will hold a protest here from noon tomorrow," he says. 

Speaking to NDTV later in the day, Khandagale claimed a woman and her son, who were seeking a loan, had approached him for help and told him that the bank official had not been cooperating with them for a month. 

"I went to the bank with them and he behaved rudely. He asked me about a written rule for speaking in Marathi. He remained adamant, as seen in the video, and then I said, 'I will teach you a lesson in MNS style'," the MNS leader said. 

He claimed the employee has given an apology in writing and the bank has assured that action will be taken against him. "We have called off our planned protest," he said. 

The MNS made headlines last year after its workers thrashed several people for not speaking in Marathi. Party chief Raj Thackeray has continued with his rhetoric on the issue and said earlier this year that migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar must understand that Hindi should not be imposed on the state.