The Shiv Sena (UBT) has taken exception to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin drawing parallels between the pushback against Hindi imposition in Maharashtra and the hard line taken by the southern state.
Distancing itself from Stalin's strong remarks after the joint "victory rally" by Thackeray cousins Uddhav and MNS leader Raj Thackeray, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that his party only opposes the Centre’s efforts to mandate Hindi in primary education, but not complete rejection of the language.
“The Southern states have been fighting for this issue for years. Their stand against the imposition of Hindi means they will not speak Hindi and neither let anyone speak Hindi. But that is not our stand in Maharashtra. We speak Hindi… Our stand is that the strictness for Hindi in primary schools will not be tolerated,” Raut told reporters on Sunday.
The "victory rally" that marked the reunion of the estranged Thackeray cousins came after the withdrawal of two contentious Government Resolutions (GRs) by the Maharashtra govenrment. One GR made Hindi compulsory in Classes 1 to 5, while the other had made it optional. Both the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the MNS had slammed the move as an act of language imposition.
Following the rally by the Thackeray cousins in Mumbai, Stalin said that the struggle against Hindi imposition had "transcended boundaries" and that the rally filled him with "immense excitement".
“The language rights struggle, waged generation after generation by the DMK and the people of Tamil Nadu to defeat Hindi imposition, has now transcended state boundaries and is swirling like a storm of protest in Maharashtra,” Stalin said.
“The enthusiasm and powerful oratory of the victory rally held today in Mumbai under the leadership of brother Uddhav Thackeray against Hindi imposition fills us with immense excitement,” he added.
However, Raut reacted to Stalin's remarks, stating that the Shiv Sena (UBT)'s fight on the issue was limited to the imposition of Hindi in primary education and not against the use of Hindi per say.
“MK Stalin has congratulated us on this win of ours and said that he will learn from this. We wish him the best. But we haven’t stopped anyone from speaking in Hindi because we have Hindi movies, Hindi theatre, and Hindi music here… Our fight is only against the imposition of Hindi in primary education… Yes, the two brothers have come together for politics, but what have they come together for?” Sanjay Raut asked.
Congratulating the Thackeray brothers for the joint rally, Stalin sought to highlight DMK's resistance to the NEP’s language policy and accused the BJP of linking the release of Rs 2,152 crore under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan to Tamil Nadu’s acceptance of Hindi and Sanskrit through the backdoor.
He framed the opposition as a cultural safeguard rather than a political battle: “The stance of the people of the state is for protection of India’s pluralistic culture, not one that is driven by hatred.”
In a final warning to the BJP, Stalin declared: "The BJP must atone for the betrayal it has committed against Tamil and Tamil Nadu. If not, Tamil Nadu will once again teach the BJP and its new allies a lesson they will never forget."
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