Marathi language row: Thackeray supporters assault auto driver days after his 'Hindi bolunga remark'
Supporters of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) assaulted a migrant auto-rickshaw driver in Maharashtra's Palghar district in full public view following a prior confrontation over the Marathi language that had gone viral on social media.
A few days earlier, there was an argument between a man named Bhavesh Padolia, a migrant from Uttar Pradesh, and the auto-rickshaw driver, also a migrant, at Virar station.
The altercation went viral on social media.
The video showed the rickshaw driver saying, "Main Hindi bolunga" ("I will speak in Hindi") repeatedly when asked why he was not speaking in Marathi.
According to Padolia, he had questioned the driver about his failure to use Marathi in public. The driver responded by saying he would rather speak in Hindi and Bhojpuri.
On Saturday, a group of Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS supporters confronted the rickshaw driver near Virar railway station.
Visuals from the site show the driver being slapped multiple times, including by women members of the groups.
The auto driver was then compelled to apologise publicly to Padolia, his sister, and to the state of Maharashtra, for what the attackers claimed was an insult to the Marathi language.
Uday Jadhav, the Virar city chief of Shiv Sena (UBT), who was seen at the location, later confirmed that the group had "responded in the true Shiv Sena style."
"If anyone dares to insult the Marathi language, Maharashtra, or Marathi people, they will get a reply in the true Shiv Sena style. We will not sit silent. The driver dared to speak ill of Maharashtra and Marathi manoos. He was taught a befitting lesson. We made him apologise to the people of the state and to those he had offended," NDTV quoted him as saying.
Despite the assault taking place in public, the Palghar district police have yet to register an official case.
The incident is the latest in a string of attacks surrounding the Marathi language in Maharashtra.
On July 1, MNS workers in Thane slapped a street food vendor for refusing to converse in Marathi. The incident drew widespread criticism and led to the arrest of seven party workers.
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