Chief minister Nitish Kumar inaugurates the Bihar Divas celebrations at Somaiyya ground in Mumbai on Sunday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Mumbai, April 15: Highlighting the brotherhood shared by Maharashtra and Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar today overwhelmed Mumbaikars speaking a few words in Marathi.

The Bihar Divas celebrations in the financial capital of the country began ceremoniously with the Maharashtra song and ended with Nitish’s speech.

Nitish in his 15-minute speech spoke largely of the brotherhood shared by Maharashtra and Bihar. He read out a few sentences in Marathi taught to him by the convener, Devesh Thakur.

He said in Marathi: “I cannot speak Marathi. But I have always requested Devesh, who lives in Mumbai, to teach me the language. I am enthusiastic about learning Marathi, which is such a sweet language, just like its people.”

Switching over to Hindi, he said: “I do not know why situations arise when Biharis face trouble here.

“Since many years, people have been coming to Mumbai from different places to earn their living left with no choice. But wherever Biharis have gone and settled, they have made that place their own. They have significantly contributed and have not been a burden.”

Nitish, who felicitated many prominent personalities from Bihar, including Udit Narayan, Manoj Tewari, Mumbai additional commissioner Kaiser Khalid, IAS officer Rajiv Sinha, also spoke about the changing image of Bihar.

“The wheels are moving again. Bihar, which was prosperous earlier, went through a bad phase. But that is changing again and the wheels are turning upwards. People are now getting jobs within Bihar,” Nitish said.

The event held at Somaiyya grounds at Sion in central Mumbai began with Nitish paying his respect to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, social reformer Mahatma Phule and BR Ambedkar. Before Udit Narayan and Manoj Tewari took the stage to sing songs on Bihar, Marathi artiste Nandesh Umap and his group sang the Maharashtra song, Maharashtra Mazha. At least 10,000 people cheered them.

Nitish, sporting the traditional cap of the koli (fisherman) community, the original natives of the city, called Maharashtra a land of saints and social reformers and invited people to celebrate Maharashtra Day in Bihar on May 1.

The crowd cheered when a speaker suggested Nitish to take the bigger responsibility of the entire nation by becoming the Prime Minister.

Nitish ended his speech with Jai Maharashtra, Jai Bihar.