Mumbai: Maharashtra’s Minister for Marathi Language, Uday Samant, said on Saturday that the state government and MNS chief Raj Thackeray share a common stance that everyone living in Maharashtra should be able to speak Marathi, while also respecting all other languages.
“Just as we respect other languages, Marathi too must be respected,” Samant stated after meeting Thackeray in Mumbai. The meeting comes amid MNS’s renewed push to promote Marathi identity ahead of upcoming civic elections in major cities, including Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik, and Nagpur.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Samant said, “Raj Thackeray had invited me, as the Minister for Marathi Language, to discuss ongoing developments regarding the use of Marathi in the state. Before coming, I informed the Shiv Sena chief and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde and took his permission.”
“I will personally speak to Eknath Shinde and CM Devendra Fadnavis. We will work towards improvements,” he said.
“Raj Thackeray and the state government have a common stand – Marathi must be respected, and all residents of Maharashtra should learn the language. I will call a meeting of all committees in the state to ensure that institutions dealing with the public, like banks, conduct their business in Marathi. We will then decide what action needs to be taken,” Samant added.
Meanwhile, Raj Thackeray asked the party members to stop agitation for now after it started aggressively pushing the Marathi identity agenda ahead of civic polls in the state, including in banks and other big corporations like Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik and Nagpur.
His letter to party members comes a day after Fadnavis warned attempts by some people to take the law into their own hands while demanding the use of Marathi will not be tolerated.
He, however, put the ball in the state government's court, saying that the government should make the banks and other establishments respect Marathi.
“The government has a major responsibility. They know the rules of the Reserve Bank, and it is now the government's responsibility to implement those rules. The Chief Minister said that we will not let anyone take the law into their own hands,” he added.
