Patna (Bihar) [India], July 5 : Following Shiv Sena (UBT) Chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray addressing a joint rally at Worli Dome in Mumbai on Saturday, Union Minister Chirag Paswan said that they were not coming together for language, but for their selfish motives and to recover their lost base.
Chirag Paswan said, "They are not coming together for language, but for their selfish motives. They are coming together to recover their lost base. Both brothers saw that staying apart not only reduced their strength but also finished it...I'm not sure whether they have resolved their differences...I believe they have come together just for their political benefits. I don't think their hearts would have connected so soon, and political differences would have ended."
He said that the country can progress under Unity in Diversity only if each other's languages are respected.
He further said, "I support and respect every language. It is the beauty of Indian languages that different languages are spoken in different states. Our dialect changes every few kilometres. I consider languages as friends; they have grown together happily. But how a few selfish political parties promote politics of discrimination - be it over caste, religion, region and now language. I do not support this at all. Constitution of India permits us to live in any corner of the country and speak any language...I respect all languages, but you respect our language as much as we respect yours."
Earlier, MNS chief Raj Thackeray launched a veiled attack on Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and said that the Chief Minister did what could not be possible for Balasaheb Thackeray, as he brought the two estranged brothers of the Thackeray family together.
Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray shared a hug at the Worli Dome in Mumbai as they held a joint rally after the Maharashtra government scrapped two Government Resolutions (GRs) to introduce Hindi as the third language.
Thackeray brothers garlanded the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at the joint rally of their parties, Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) at Worli Dome in Mumbai.
Addressing the gathering, Raj Thackeray said, "I had said in one of my interviews that my Maharashtra is bigger than any politics and fight. Today, after 20 years, Uddhav and I have come together. What Balasaheb could not do, Devendra Fadnavis did it... The work of bringing both of us together."
"Minister Dada Bhuse came to me and requested me to listen to his point. I asked him what the third language would be for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Rajasthan. All the Hindi-speaking states are behind us, and we are ahead of all Hindi-speaking states; still, we are being forced to learn Hindi. Why?. I don't have anything against Hindi; no language is bad. It takes a lot of effort to build a language. We Marathi people ruled over a lot of states during the Maratha Empire, but we never enforced Marathi on those parts. They started with the experiment of imposing Hindi over us and were trying to test if we would not have opposed it, they would have gone up to making Mumbai separate from Maharashtra," he added.
He further asked if anyone would raise a question about his pride in Marathi.
He further said, "They say that our children have learnt in English medium schools. So what? Dada Bhuse studied in Marathi schools and became a minister. Devendra Fadnavis studied in an English-medium school and became the Maharashtra CM. So what? I would tell you that I studied in a Marathi school, but my father, Shrikant Thackeray, and uncle, Balasaheb Thackeray, studied in an English medium school. Can anyone raise a question about their love for Marathi? Tomorrow, I will learn Hebrew also. Will anyone raise a question about my pride in Marathi?"
"Be it Gujarati or anyone else here, must know Marathi, but there is no need to beat people for that if they don't speak Marathi. But if someone shows useless drama, you must hit below their eardrums. I tell you one more thing: if you beat someone, don't make a video of the incident. Let the person beaten up tell that he has been beaten up, you don't need to tell everyone that you have beaten someone," he added.
Recently, the Maharashtra government withdrew its April 16 orders on the implementation of the three-language policy that made Hindi a "mandatory" third language for school students in Classes 1 to 5 studying in English and Marathi medium schools.