Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Sandeep Deshpande on Friday seemed to threaten non-Marathi-speaking businessmen in the state. His post on X (formerly Twitter) came after investor and founder of Kedionomics, Sushil Kedia, publicly declared that he would not learn Marathi to protest against the “gross misconduct” of MNS boss Raj Thackeray.
The ‘Mehta’ mention in his post seems to be a reference to the BJP’s Narendra Mehta, who commented on the incident wherein a shopkeeper in Mumbai’s Mira Road area was beaten for not speaking Marathi.
“Do business if you’re a businessman, don’t try to act like our father. If you insult Marathi in Maharashtra, you’ll get a slap on the ear, otherwise, stay in your lane, Mehta or whoever. That’s all for now,” a translation of Deshpande’s post on X read.
On Thursday, the Kedionomics founder wrote a post directly to Raj Thackeray and said that he does not know Marathi properly even after living in Mumbai for 30 years.
“I don’t know Marathi properly even after living for 30 years in Mumbai, and with your gross misconduct, I have made it a resolve that until such people as you are allowed to pretend to be taking care of Marathi Manus, I take pratigya I won’t learn Marathi. Kya karna hai bol?” Kedia’s post read.
Deshpande’s threat comes days after a shopkeeper was allegedly assaulted in Mira Road for not speaking Marathi. When he told the MNS workers that he owned the shop, they claimed that a proposal had been passed in the Maharashtra assembly which requires all businesses to hire Marathi-speaking staff and operate in Marathi.
“When I asked them when such a proposal was passed, they said ‘two days ago’ and then asked me which official language is spoken in Maharashtra. When I responded that all languages are spoken in the state, they became aggressive and started assaulting me,” he said.