Maharashtrians in UP come out against Raj-led campaign

LUCKNOW: Maharashtrians in Uttar Pradesh have come out against the violent MNS campaign against north Indians, warning that it will backfire and harm Maharashtra economically.

"People who go out for livelihood do value addition both to their native state as well as their place of work and this is true in case of north Indians living in Maharashtra, " president of Maharashtra Samaj, Lucknow, G V Vaishampayan, said.

Referring to the killing of Dharamdev Rai, who hailed from UP, by Maharashtra police, he said that the Maharashtra Samaj condemns such incidents in the strongest possible terms.

"Such acts were a blot on a civilised society and should be opposed by all possible means," Vaishampayan said adding that he would demand strong action against MNS by the Maharashtra government.

When asked about the reasons behind the "hate campaign", Vaishampayan, who is also the Head of the Applied economics Department in Lucknow University said "all this is being done simply to gain some political space."

"Many Marathi families were living in parts of Uttar Pradesh and other states for generations but were never subjected to the kind of hatred campaign as is going on in Maharashtra," he said.

The concentration of Marathi population in Uttar Pradesh is mainly in Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Jhansi and Lucknow.
The Maharashtra Samaj in Lucknow was established in 1921, Vaishampayan said.

In Lucknow there are nearly 250 Marathi households and the population is around 1,500. As far as Uttar Pradesh is concerned, the population stands at about 8,000, he said.