Contact Thackeray tutorials to learn Marathi in 40 days

MUMBAI: Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s is taking its lingua fracas a step further. After its jingoistic war cry on taxi permits for only Marathis last week, the MNS now plans to actually teach the native language to North India taxi and auto operators in the city.

The announcement, made by MNS’ transport wing, also indicates a rather mellowed position on the issue after the MNS chief’s threat that the MNS won’t let a single taxi run on the Mumbai streets if the state government did not give licences to only Marathi manoos. The transport wing of MNS on Monday distributed Marathi alphabets books to taxi drivers, giving them 40 days to speak the language.

“We have given Marathi alphabets books to 300 North Indian taxi drivers in Kurla with a deadline of 40 days to learn the language,” Maharashtra Navnirman Vahtuk Sena president Haji Arafat Sheikh said.
The transport wing of MNS has ordered 50,000 Marathi books to be distributed among taxi and auto drivers who can’t speak Marathi, Mr Sheikh said.

“It is very shocking that people earning here for more than 15 years and cannot communicate in Marathi. They must learn the language, else will book their tickets to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,” Sheikh warned.

Meanwhile, the MNS activists also put hoardings in the city on Monday asking the North Indian drivers to learn the language in 40 days failing which they would be sent back to their states.

Last week, the MNS latched on to an issue handed over to it on the platter by chief minister Ashok Chavan who initially said a functional knowledge of Marathi was compulsory to obtain taxi permits in Maharashtra but later retracted saying that the state would treat Gujarati or Hindi as optional languages. The MNS and Shiv Sena criticised the chief minister with the former being more ballistic. But now, the MNS seems to have mellowed its stand as it appears game for non-Marathi taxi drivers who can “learn” Marathi.