Raj Thackeray slams RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on language issue

Mumbai: In a rare attack on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, MNS founder-president Raj Thackeray on Tuesday said that linguistic and regional pride is a fundamental right of every citizen, not a “kind of a disease" as suggested by the RSS chief during his two-day interactions in Mumbai over the weekend.

“The RSS chief made a statement to the effect that insisting on language and occasionally agitating for it is a kind of disease…Firstly, we assume Mr. Bhagwat surely knows the history of why reorganization of the states along linguistic lines became a necessity in this country. If love for one’s language and one’s region seems like a disease to Bhagwat, then we would like to point out that this ‘disease’ is rampant across the majority of the states in this country. From Karnataka to Tamil Nadu in the South, there are strong linguistic and provincial identities. The same sentiment exists in West Bengal, Punjab, and even Gujarat,” Raj posted on X in Marathi and English separately.

"Has Bhagwat tried to understand what this sentiment really is? When large groups from four or five states migrate en masse to other states, behave arrogantly there, reject the local culture, insult the local language, and create their own vote banks, resentment builds among the local people, leading to eruptions. You call this a disease? And if this is a disease, as you say, then it has spread to Gujarat as well. When thousands of people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were chased out of Gujarat, why didn’t you go there to give lessons on harmony? Why didn’t you give the same lessons in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, or West Bengal?,” added Raj, known for his strong views on language and mother tongue.

According to him, it is not because the Marathi people are tolerant, but because the rulers here are spineless, that Bhagwat dares to speak this way.

“A few months ago, just before elections, Bhaiyyaji Joshi provoked the Marathi people by saying that Mumbai’s language is not only Marathi but also Gujarati, attempting to woo Gujarati speakers. All this was done to see how the BJP could benefit indirectly. Why should the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh—which calls itself a non-political organization—get involved in such matters in the first place?,” he pointed out.

“We have respect for the work of the Sangh, but that does not mean it should indulge in taking indirect political stances. And if you insist on doing so, then first show the courage to reprimand the government for imposing Hindi across the country (which, incidentally, is not even the national language), and only then lecture us on harmony,” Raj told the RSS chief.

Citing MNS protests against the Raza Academy riots and the misuse of loudspeakers, the party asked why Bhagwat remains silent on the "barbaric" conduct during Kanwar Yatras in North India, India’s surge to becoming the world's second-largest beef exporter and the 'circus' of cow slaughter politics used to incite public sentiment.

“There’s chaos unfolding across the country in the name of Hindutva—when will you speak about it? The grotesque manner in which women are made to dance during Kanwar Yatras in North India, the fact that India ranked 9th in beef exports in 2014, but is now ranked 2nd, and the spectacle of politics around cow slaughter that is being staged within the country, provoking communal frenzy—when will you speak about all this? When will you take the government to task over those traders?,” he added.