Estranged cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray shared a stage and a hug on Saturday, two decades after their split, to assert Marathi pride and oppose “Hindi imposition” by the BJP-led Maharashtra government.
At the “Voice of the Marathi” rally, Uddhav, who heads a Shiv Sena faction, signalled a political alliance between the increasingly marginalised cousins, stressing: “We have come together to remain together.”
The duo were celebrating a success — the Devendra Fadnavis government’s withdrawal of its decision to introduce Hindi as a third language in primary school, days after the Thackerays had announced a joint protest.
“What Balasaheb and many others could not do, Fadnavis has done by bringing us together,” Raj, chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), crowed.
Raj had walked out of the Shiv Sena in late 2005 after his uncle and party founder Balasaheb Thackeray nominated son Uddhav as his political heir. He has since then enjoyed little political success.
While Raj on Saturday primarily targeted the Fadnavis government’s attempted “Hindi imposition”, Uddhav attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, underscoring the political significance of their alliance.
“Their slogan is ‘Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan’. Hindu and Hindustan we agree on, but we won’t allow Hindi,” Uddhav said.
He spoke of the need to regain control of Mumbai, the party’s undisputed fief under Bal Thackeray that has slowly slipped out of the Thackerays’ grip with the rise of the BJP.
The reunited cousins’ first test will be the local body elections later this year, particularly that to the cash-rich Mumbai corporation.
The protest against “Hindi imposition” has witnessed a few attacks on non-Marathis in Mumbai, indicating a calculated move to foreground the language row ahead of the civic polls.
At the rally, the cousins seemed to obliquely justify the violence, with Uddhav castigating Fadnavis’s pledge not to tolerate “hooliganism” in the name of Marathi.
“If you (Fadnavis) are calling Marathi people ‘goondas’ for seeking justice, then, yes, we are ‘goondas’,” Uddhav said.
Raj said people from other states living and working in Mumbai must learn Marathi. “There is no need to beat someone if they don’t speak Marathi but if someone resorts to useless drama, you must hit them below their eardrums,” he said.
MNS cadres vandalised the office of a prominent Mumbai investor, Sushil Kedia, on Saturday. Kedia had in a July 3 post on X publicly challenged Raj, saying he would not learn Marathi.
Sule presence
NCP (Sharad Pawar) working president and MP Supriya Sule’s presence at the rally appeared politically significant at a time when the BJP has been courting her support.
Although Sule didn’t address the crowd, she dragged Aditya and Amit Thackeray — the sons of Uddhav and Raj — close to their fathers for a photo-op. She spoke excitedly to Raj and Uddhav, clearly happy at their reunion.
