Mumbai, Nov 22 – In a fiery address on Saturday, Shiv Sena UBT president and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray slammed the BJP and RSS for what he called a “poison of language.” He warned that the BJP was stoking linguistic regionalism, or “bhashik praantvaad,” and insisted that nobody should be beaten over a language, adding, “Now, what are the BJP people doing? They are inflaming linguistic regionalism…We do not demand that anyone be beaten up over language.”
Thackeray spoke as a BJP leader, Yogendra Bhoir, and his wife Twinkle joined the Shiv Sena (UBT) at his house in Matoshree on Saturday. He criticized a Shinde‑faction legislator’s comment that it was fine for a mother in Marathi to die while an aunt speaking Hindi must stay alive, and asked, “What else can you expect from such a person?” He also cited RSS activist Bhaiyya Joshi’s claim in Ghatkopar that Gujarati is the mother tongue, arguing that “this means that the poison is being spread by the BJP and the RSS, and they are putting the blame on us.”
Thackeray referenced the tragic suicide of a 19‑year‑old college student from Kalyan, who allegedly faced severe mental distress after a dispute over his use of Hindi instead of Marathi. “An unfortunate incident occurred the day before yesterday, which should not have happened. We do not demand that anyone be beaten up over language,” he reiterated.
He added that with local body polls underway and the crucial Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections approaching, many people are returning to the Shiv Sena UBT. He framed the shift as a realization of the BJP’s hypocrisy and the traitorous nature of the Shinde faction, urging workers to stay vigilant, saying, “The Bharatiya Janata Party is a party that schemes and plots.” He went on to claim that the BJP, after breaking parties, now seeks to tear families apart.
Stoking the criticism further, Thackeray said the BJP’s Hindutva bubble had burst, citing the sadhu murder in Palghar as a painful reminder of “no one supports that incident, nor will they.” He accused the BJP of drawing in someone they had previously accused into their ranks, hoping to mask their sin. “However, the sin was not hidden; it came out into the open. After that, the BJP hastily put a stay on his entry in the party, which means that the BJP’s hypocrisy regarding Hindutva has been exposed,” he declared.
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