MUMBAI: The Samajwadi Party member of Parliament, actor and wife of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan has stirred another controversy, with the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) getting furious over her comments on Marathi language.
MNS Chief Raj Thackeray late last evening held a press conference and demanded that Jaya apologize for her comments to the Maharashtra government and also to Marathi-speaking people. “She has grown old and hence lost all her senses,” Raj said in a sarcastic remark on the actor.
Raj also warned that if Jaya does not apologize immediately, then the MNS would not allow any of the films of her husband Amitabh and son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwaraya Bachchan to be screened in any part of Maharashtra. Soon after this announcement of Raj, MNS militants went on rampage destroying posters of two forthcoming films to be released this week, and a week later of Amitabh and Abhishek.
However, defending Jaya, family friend and Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh said that Jaya had already apologized when she made the comment. But, as a political strategy, newly appointed Mumbai Regional Congress Party president and former state Home Minister Kripa Shankar Singh, himself a north India, concurred with the MNS chief’s statement and said that it is necessary for the people residing in Maharashtra to speak and know Marathi language.
The Congress alliance partner, National Congress Party’s state president, Arun Gujrathi, originally from Gujarat state, also agreed with Raj and said that outsiders working and staying in Maharashtra should speak, read and write Marathi. There is nothing wrong in what Raj is advocating, he said.
Jaya is known for her blunt attitude and of not mincing words and speaking her mind out clearly. In a supposedly light-hearted ribbing of the MNS’ “Speak Marathi or else” diktat issued in the state, Jaya opened a new can of worms.
Speaking at the music launch of her son and actor Abhishek’s upcoming film Drona in Mumbai on Saturday, Jaya said, “I would like to apologize for speaking in Hindi language. We are from Uttar Pradesh (UP) and we speak in Hindi, so I hope Maharashtrians don’t mind.”
Jaya’s comment has not gone down well with the MNS and Shiv Sena. MNS’ student wing president and a close confidante of Raj Thackeray, Sandeep Deshpande, who recently courted arrest over the Marathi signboards issue in Mumbai said, “She has insulted Maharashtrians by this statement. We hope she will apologize for the same.”
Another MNS official Vinay Shinde said, “How can an member of Parliament, staying and making a living from acting in films in the city, make such a statement in a public forum? Is her statement justifiable in any manner? We know she and her family come from Uttar Pradesh and that her vote base is also in that state, but they are still living in Mumbai. Jaya must issue an apology, for this uncalled-for remark.”
