Amid the ongoing ‘Hindi imposition’ row, Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Yogesh Kadam issued a stern warning on Thursday and said that laws will be enforced if anyone disrespects the language in the state.
“In Maharashtra, you have to speak Marathi. If you don’t know Marathi, your attitude shouldn’t be that you won’t speak Marathi… If anyone disrespects Marathi in Maharashtra, we will enforce our laws,” Kadam told ANI.
Kadam’s comments come a day after a video of a Thane shop owner being assaulted for purportedly refusing to speak in Marathi went viral on social media.
Thane shop owner assault case
A group of men, reportedly MNS workers, allegedly assaulted a shop owner for refusing to speak in Marathi on Tuesday in the Bhayander area of Maharashtra’s Thane.
The viral video showed that the men slapped the shop owner several times after he was asked “Which language is spoken in the state”. The shop owner’s response, who was talking in Hindi, that “all languages” infuriated the men who had visited his shop to buy food, as reported by PTI.
According to a Hindustan Times report, the incident occurred shortly after the Maharashtra government withdrew its orders on the implementation of the three-language policy in the state, which lead to the opposition terming it as ‘Hindi imposition’.
A police complaint was filed by the shop owner and a probe is on, the HT report said, quoting an official. Members of the MNS have been trying to push for the use of Marathi language in commercial establishments and banks in the state.
Reacting to the incident, Kadam said, “Those who beat up (the shop owner) should not take the law into their own hands. They should have filed a complaint against the concerned person; action would have been taken.”
Report on three-language policy in 3 months
The Narendra Jadhav Committee will share its report on Maharashtra’s three-language policy with the state government in three months, a Government Resolution (GR) by the Maharashtra School Education and Sports Department said.
According to the GR, the committee members will be appointed by the government soon.
The committee will study the report by the Dr Raghunath Mashelkar committee and discuss the issue with the concerned constituents, institutions, and people. The committee will study the other States and Union Territories that have adopted the National Education Policy 2020, news agency ANI reported.
The row over the three-language policy began when the Maharashtra government, on April 16, passed a resolution that mandated Hindi as the compulsory third language in Marathi and English-medium schools.
However, in response to the backlash, the government revised the policy on June 17 through an amended resolution, stating, “Hindi will be the third language. For those who want to learn another language, at least 20 willing students are required.”