Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 23 : Senior Maharashtra Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Husain Dalwai slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after a college student in Thane allegedly died by suicide after being beaten for speaking Hindi instead of Marathi in the state.
Speaking to ANI on Saturday, Dalwai condemned the dispute between Hindi and Marathi, while accusing the BJP of creating a divide based on religion and class.
"They keep speaking against Muslims, Christians and Dalits. First, you learn to work with wisdom, then teach someone else. What happened was wrong, and I stand with his (victim's) family. People come here (to Mumbai) for employment and work hard. Why do we speak against them rather than Ambani-Adani?" the Congress leader said.
A college student allegedly died by suicide after being thrashed by five people for not speaking in Marathi on a local train in Mumbai.
Earlier, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar called it an "unfortunate" incident and called for strict action against the perpetrators.
"Any youth's loss of life in such circumstances is a matter of shame for the state as well as for the whole country. Those who forced him to take such a drastic step should be held, and strict action should be taken," Narwekar said.
BJP leader Ram Kadam took a veiled jibe at Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which has championed the language issue in Maharashtra.
Kadam condemned the violence and criticised MNS, saying that the party resorted to violence as it lost its support base in the state.
He said, "Marathi was, is, and will remain the primary language in Maharashtra. But this does not mean that we should hate or despise other languages. What kind of mentality is this? Language is a medium of communication. Every state has its own language. It is natural to have self-respect for that language, but when violence erupts based on that language, and someone loses their life because of that language, then what disgusting and cheap politics you have."
"There are some parties in Maharashtra that have lost their support base and, after losing that support base, will resort to violence again in an attempt to find some new support base. The person who died is unfortunate, and we stand with that family," the BJP leader added.
A fresh language dispute in Maharashtra sparked in July this year when some traders in Mumbai were allegedly attacked by MNS workers for not speaking Marathi. The MNS had been demanding that traders and shopkeepers in the city speak Marathi, leading to tensions between the two groups.