Hindi vs Marathi row spills over to Mumbai roads, MNS holds rally to counter traders' stir over attack on stall owner

Mira Road(Thane district): The ongoing Hindi-Marathi debate in Maharashtra spilled onto the streets as the busy Mira Road suburbs of Mumbai became the ground zero of the agitation with thousands to people responding to the call of Raj Thackeray-led MNS on Tuesday resulting into a high-voltage drama.

However, high drama prevailed as several local leaders of the MNS including Avinash, who heads the party’s units in twin districts of Thane and Palghar and Sandeep Rane, the Mira Road chief, were taken under preventive detention overnight.

Besides, the Mira-Bhayander Vasai-Virar (MBVV) police denied permission for the rally resulting in a war of words and scuffle among the protestors and police, which went on for several hours.

The Mira Road township in the Western Line suburbs of Mumbai was the focal point of the Hindi-Marathi debate after a sweet shop owner was assaulted by alleged MNS workers when he refused to speak in Marathi while they were celebrating the BJP-led Maha Yuti government withdrawal two GRs introducing Marathi in primary education. Later seven MNS workers were arrested and they were chargesheeted within four days. Last Thursday, police, however, allowed shopkeepers and traders to undertake a protest.

The MNS called the protest in this backdrop, which was supported by Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), Marathi Ekikaran Samiti and opposition political Maha Vikas Aghadi parties including Congress and Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP).

“Gujaratis were allowed to undertake a protest but Marathis are being denied,” said MNS Mumbai president and spokesperson Sandeep Deshpande.

As soon as the news spread like wildfire that several leaders of the MNS and other parties were detained in Mira-Bhayander, Vasai-Virar, Thane and other places, people got agitated and squatted on the roads.

Members of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena take out a rally to counter a protest staged earlier by traders against the slapping of a food stall owner for not speaking in Marathi, at Mira road in Mumbai

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the state Home Minister, spoke to MBVV Commissioner of Police Madhukar Pandey about the situation. “It would be wrong to say that we did not permit the protest at Mira Road. I have spoken to the CP, who told me that the police did not refuse permission for the protest,” the CM said, adding that the organisers wanted to hold a protest march on a route where it was not feasible. “We asked them to take an alternative route, but they did not agree. It would be incorrect to say they were denied permission…the route requested could not be agreed to as it is not the normal route where the protests were held…we have to take into account law and order, safety issues, stampede among other things,” he said.

“We also had intelligence inputs that influenced our decision. Some people have been detained, and I appeal to residents to cooperate with the police,” said Pandey.

People came in waves and assembled in Shakti Chowk but had a scuffle with the police. Several men and women were detained by police and taken in vans to the police stations and other places.

Meanwhile, state Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik, who belongs to Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, strongly criticised the police for halting the Marathi morcha, calling their actions unwarranted and inconsistent with any official government directive - a move that went against the Maha Yuti dispensation.

“The police action was completely unjustified. The government has not issued any instructions to suppress a peaceful march held in support of Marathi pride. The way police are detaining people it raises doubts that they are working on some party agenda,” he said.

“I am going there…let them arrest me,” he said as he left the Vidhan Bhavan.

Sarnaik drove to Mira Road, however, there met with protests and people engaged in slogans like ‘pannas khokhe, ekdum okay’. He left the scene within minutes. "I am a Marathi first then a minister," he said.

Former Thane MP and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Rajan Vichare too rushed to the spot.

The MNS activists alleged that local MLA Narendra Mehta played a partial role by supporting the morcha taken out by traders and non-Marathi people, but firmly opposed the morcha planned by the Raj Thackeray-led party.

After several rounds of discussion with the police, MNS and Marathi Ekikaran Samiti were allowed to take the morcha towards the railway station.