Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday attempted a balancing act between obliquely backing BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s controversial remark on the “Hindi imposition” row and distancing himself from it as the loose-cannon parliamentarian continued his diatribe against cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray.

“Whatever Nishikant Dubey has said, it was not meant for the common Marathi people but for those organisations which have fuelled this controversy. Yet, what he has said is not completely right. It leads to different opinions,” Fadnavis told reporters in Mumbai.

“No one can deny or forget the contribution of Maharashtra to the progress of the country. If someone does so, it would be completely wrong,” he added, hailing the valour of Maratha warriors.

Fadnavis was responding to Dubey’s claim on Monday that Maharashtra survives on the money generated by mineral-rich Hindi-speaking states, and his dare to the Thackeray cousins to visit Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, saying they would be beaten up.

“You people are surviving on our money. What kind of industries do you have? We have all the mines in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. What mines do you have? All semiconductor refineries are in Gujarat,” Dubey, the MP of Dodda in Jharkhand, had said.

The Maharashtra chief minister was compelled to respond after Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders questioned his silence on his party MP’s “disparaging” comments against the state.

“Who is this Dubey?... I am surprised that the Maharashtra chief minister and his cabinet were silent when a BJP MP was giving statements against the Marathi people,” Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said ahead of Fadnavis’s response.

The estranged Thackeray cousins had come together on Saturday to protest what they alleged was “Hindi imposition”. Unfazed, Dubey continued with his attacks on the Thackeray cousins while avoiding targeting the people of Maharashtra in general.

Dubey accused MNS chief Raj Thackeray of resorting to “goondagardi” (hooliganism) and accused Sena (UBT) supremo Uddhav Thackeray of corruption.

“When Raj Thackeray doesn’t get support, he puts goons forward…. My opposition is to (Raj) Thackeray’s thuggery and the limit of tolerance is running out. The Maratha community is always respectable. This country belongs to all of us,” Dubey posted on X in Hindi.

“Thackeray, come to your senses, don’t make your fight about the Maratha people. We have contributed to Mumbai’s development and will continue to do so,” he added, attaching a screenshot of a WikiLeaks page about MNS workers attacking north Indians in Mumbai.

MNS protest

The ongoing language row witnessed a dramatic twist on Tuesday when transport minister Pratap Sarnaik of the Shiv Sena faction headed by deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde came out in protest against the arrest of MNS workers.

Several MNS workers were arrested after they defied police restrictions to stage a counter-protest against a traders’ agitation over the assault on one of their colleagues last week. Slaps were rained on a Mumbai sweet seller by MNS workers after he failed to speak in Marathi and the local traders’ body has been protesting against the incident.

Fadnavis justified the arrest of the MNS workers, saying the police had not given permission for the protest. “There are traffic issues and stampede risks. The police commissioner told me they (MNS leaders) were asked to change the route, but they were adamant. So the police stopped them,” Fadnavis said.

Defying the government line, minister Sarnaik went to join the MNS protest. He told reporters that he was going to get the arrested MNS workers released and dared the police to arrest him too.

“I dare the police to arrest me. I am going to get those Marathi-speaking people released,” Sarnaik told reporters. He said the MNS workers might have violated prohibitory orders but they were agitating for the cause of the Marathi language.

Drama ensued when the MNS workers heckled the minister and forced him to leave their protest.

Sarnaik joining the MNS protest was seen as an effort by the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena not to be left behind in championing the cause of the Marathi language.