NEW DELHI: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s threatening “patak patak ke marenge” (will thrash mercilessly) remark was not for the common people of Maharashtra, but for those behind the ongoing Marathi-Hindi row in the state. However, Fadnavis also conceded that the statement was “inappropriate.”“Whatever Nishikant Dubey has said, it is not for the common Marathi people, but for those organisations which have fuelled this controversy. I believe that Nishikant Dubey’s statement was not completely correct. No one can deny or forget the contribution of Maharashtra in the progress of the country, and if someone does so, it would be completely wrong,” the BJP leader told reporters in Mumbai.Meanwhile, Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena (UBT), the party led by Uddhav Thackeray who, along with his estranged cousin Raj, was the target of Dubey’s ire, responded by calling the BJP MP from Jharkhand – a Hindi-speaking state, a “faltu aadmi” (useless) person.The cousins, estranged since mid-2000s, recently made their first joint public appearance in over 20 years to protest the alleged Hindi imposition by the BJP-led government in Maharashtra.There have also been attacks on Hindi-speaking people by members of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).Raut said, “Who is this Dubey? Those who speak in Hindi in Maharashtra, have they authorized him to speak for them? I appeal to the Hindi-speaking leaders here to condemn by Dubey’s remarks. Only then will I say that you are from Maharashtra. How is Dubey related to you? He’s a ‘faltu aadmi’.”He also targeted deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, who split the Shiv Sena in 2022 and leads that faction of the party, which is a member of the BJP-led ruling alliance.“Shinde thinks he is the leader of the ‘duplicate’ Shiv Sena, right? Resign if you are a ‘mard’ (man). Go and ask (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji and (home minister Amit) Shah, what is going on in Maharashtra,” Raut stated.He further claimed that no Hindi speaker has ever been attacked in Maharashtra.“Lakhs of Hindi-speaking people live in Maharashtra. How am I talking in Hindi if it is banned here? It is the responsibility of Fadnavis and deputy CMs Shinde and (Ajit) Pawar to teach Dubey a lesson, or resign,” the Rajya Sabha member added.
