Mumbai
Edition, 15th July 2008
Mumbai:
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray has demanded
that English-medium schools in the state must make Marathi
a compulsory subject from Std I to Std X.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, Thackeray also
asked shopkeepers to put up signboards in Marathi. He has
written to shopowners asking them to implement his diktat
within a month.
Last week, he had sent a missive to Marathi officials in
the state government, BMC, police and RTO to stop helping
north Indian migrants. He had said Marathi officials were
taking bribes and giving away domicile certificates, driving
licences, ration cards and other documents due to which
“outsiders’’ flourished.
Thackeray alleged that north Indians were also flexing their
muscles in the political arena and the future generation
of Marathis would not forgive Maharashtrian officers who
helped north Indian migrants. “According to the 2001
census, 92.55 lakh people from Uttar Pradesh and 52 lakh
from Bihar had migrated to other states. A large number
of them came to Maharashtra. They send back money orders
worth Rs 1,152 crore annually to UP and Bihar,’’
he said.
Replying to a query, Thackeray said the MNS will also contest
the Lok Sabha polls. Ironically, not a single leading political
party is wanting to have an electoral truck with the MNS.
The MNS also warned the media and said they must not refer
to Mumbai as Bombay.
He named an English daily which, in an article on Monday,
referred to the city as Bombay.
“When the media can call other cities by their official
names, like in the case of Bengaluru, why not use the same
yardstick for Mumbai and stop calling it Bombay?’’
he asked.
With elections round the corner, observers say Thackeray
is determined to eat into Shiv Sena votes.
