Teaching Marathi with love: Shiv Sena (UBT) counters MNS violence by launching its own campaign

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray

"Marathi is a lovely language and it should be taught with love" — this is the message Shiv Sena (UBT) aims to convey in contrast to the violent tactics adopted by Raj Thackeray's party to promote the use of Marathi in Maharashtra. Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena has announced classes to teach Marathi to non-Maharashtrians living in the state.

On the other hand, Raj Thackeray, on Saturday afternoon, asked his workers to withdraw the campaign, saying that the "message has been conveyed."

Anand Dubey, the spokesperson of Shiv Sena (UBT), informed that Marathi teachers from BMC-run schools have been hired for the party's "Teach Marathi" campaign. Contact numbers of party functionaries have been circulated via hoardings across the city and on social media. People interested in learning Marathi can contact them, and the functionary will connect the learner to the nearest Marathi class. "MNS padhati hai Marathi maar se. Hum padhayenge Marathi pyaar se" (MNS teaches Marathi by thrashing. We will teach it with love), said Dubey.

Surprisingly, Raj Thackeray withdrew his campaign, stating that enough awareness had been created. In a letter posted on the party's social media accounts, Thackeray instructed his workers: "Stop the campaign for the time being, but keep your attention on the issue. I am also telling the government that if rules are not followed, Marathi people are taken for granted or insulted, then my men will surely go to meet them for a discussion."

Thackeray's letter follows a spate of violent incidents across Maharashtra, where MNS workers visited banks, housing societies, and malls, assaulting non-Maharashtrians for not being able to speak Marathi. In his annual Gudhi Padwa rally, Thackeray had threatened that those who don't speak Marathi in Maharashtra would be slapped.

With this campaign, Thackeray is once again seen as returning to the Marathi issue ahead of the BMC polls.

The incidents of violence had put CM Devendra Fadnavis under the scanner, as he also holds the home portfolio. It was alleged that Fadnavis was deliberately going soft on the issue. Sources say some behind-the-scenes parleys between the MNS and BJP led to the campaign's withdrawal.