Mumbai: Amid the controversy over non-Hindi-speaking auto and taxi drivers in Maharashtra having to learn Marathi, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) supremo Raj Thackeray’s son Amit on Thursday added fuel to the fire.
On a day chief minister Devendra Fadnavis extended the deadline for auto-rickshaw and cab drivers to learn functional Marathi by a year, Amit Thackeray said Hindi is a “language of Uttar Pradesh” and linked the state government’s latest decision to next year’s Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Amit also said his party will beat any auto-rickshaw driver who is found speaking Hindi.
“If it comes to our notice that someone (an auto-rickshaw driver) is speaking in Hindi or behaving rudely, then we will beat them. Don’t tell people that they have to speak UP’s language or that they have to speak Hindi. We will speak in Marathi… We have understood how much affection you (Devendra Fadnavis) have for the Marathi language and for our state. You go to Gujarat, you go to Punjab, you go to the South. Everywhere there is an attachment to one’s own language. Now, because the UP elections are coming, you are giving a one-year extension. What kind of desperation has come upon you that we should set aside our own language, that we should set aside our own state?” the MNS leader said.
Days after the Transport department headed by Shiv Sena minister Pratap Sarnaik carried out a checking drive and issued notices to drivers who failed a Marathi test, prompting four app cab drivers to approach the Bombay High Court against the state order of making knowledge of the language mandatory, Fadnavis struck a conciliatory note.
He said no action will be taken against drivers over a period of one year for not having knowledge of the state’s official language.
Representatives of auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers’ organisations met the CM. Fadnavis told reporters that drivers fully supported the rule that they should learn basic Marathi and were willing to learn it.
“They requested that they be given one year’s time. The state government has accepted their demand and is giving them one year. No action will be taken during this period,” Fadnavis said.
During the one-year period, Marathi classes will be organised and study material will be provided to help auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers learn functional Marathi, Fadnavis informed.
