PUNE, India, 25 December 2005 — The Shiv Sena party is back to its old terror tactics. In order to arrest the decline in its popularity, the party has sent a strong message to the residents of the state: Speak, read and write Marathi or be prepared to get booted out. A senior Shiv Sena leader said: “We mean what we say and we know how to teach a lesson to those who dare disobey our dictate.”
Shop owners and government offices have been told to display names in the Marathi language. The Sena mouthpiece “Saamna” carried a series of articles recently detailing how the population of the Marathi-speaking people is decreasing in Bombay, and how people from other states who have migrated to Bombay were the highest taxpayers.
The Sena message was heard loud and clear in its mother base in Pune, where party leaders announced plans to launch an agitation against shop owners, government offices and companies that have signboards in languages other than Marathi. From Jan. 1, the Shiv Sena will organize a campaign to spread the use of Marathi throughout the state, and after a week will seek explanation from individuals and organizations failing to use Marathi. People who defy the party warning will be responsible for any action taken against them by party workers, said Pramod Apte, a Sena activist. “If Mulayam Singh Yadav insists on the use of Hindi in Uttar Pradesh and Lalu Prasad in Bihar, why should we not do so,” asked Vinay Mahajan, another Sena activist, who added that those who resist will face the Sena wrath.
Action will be taken against those who show contempt for Marathi and individuals who reside in the state and do not speak the language, warned a Sena leader. He added that the party had already targeted the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company, a state government undertaking, for putting up an advertisement for recruitment in the English language instead of Marathi. The company was forced to stop the recruitment.
All government and public undertakings, including the state and local transport sectors, have been told to display names only in Marathi. English-medium schools have been warned that they would face the ire of the party, if they do not stop immediately fining students who speak Marathi in school.
Nana Wadekar, the city chief of Shiv Sena, has warned that party workers would gatecrash and disrupt New Year parties if the police failed to enforce a Supreme Court order restricting the use of loudspeakers and other rules.
Mohan Kumar Singh, who hails from Bihar and works in the information technology sector, said: “If political parties in states try to force outsiders to speak the regional language, it would pose a serious threat to the unity and sovereignty of the country.”
