PUNE: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) supremo Raj Thackeray has justified the attack by his party workers on Mercedes Benz International School (MBIS) in Pune on Aug. 15 for allegedly failing to hoist the national flag. Speaking at the launch of the MNS membership drive across the state here yesterday, Raj said, “Any” school, whether national or international, which runs in India should follow Indian culture, otherwise they should leave this country.
The MBIS is also facing disciplinary action by the Maharashtra government. State’s Education Minister, Vasant Purke, told Arab News that the school had violated government’s directives. “The state government had made it clear that all schools in the state will have to celebrate Independence Day with the students. I will be issuing orders to initiate immediate action against the school,” Purke said. MNS workers had ransacked MBIS situated in Hinjewadi in the suburb of Pune on Friday for allegedly not hoisting the national flag on Independence day. The police arrested 11 MNS workers after the incident. The police said that the accused entered the school premises on Friday morning and demanded hoisting of the national flag in the presence of the students. The accused then smashed the front door of the school and damaged furnitures.
The director of MBIS, Michael Thompson, however, refuted the charges saying, “Our school had all preparations in place to hoist the national flag at 7.50 a.m. But political activists interrupted and indulged in violence.”
