MNS workers vandalise Gujarati signboards in Vasai after Raj Thackeray’s ‘feels like Gujarat’ remark
Screengrabs from the video
Hours after Raj Thackeray’s ‘Vasai feels like Gujarat these days’ remark, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers on Sunday vandalised and pulled down Gujarati signboards of a number of commercial establishments in the area.
The cadres of the Raj Thackeray-led party smashed and pulled down over 20 signboards on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway in the districts Vasai area late last night, MNS Thane region president Avinash Jadhav said.
“Vasai and Thane district are in Maharashtra and not Gujarat, and we will not tolerate name boards in Gujarati anymore,” Jadhav told PTI on the phone. He added that their agitation against such signboards would continue.
Meanwhile, Vasai police control room confirmed the incident, but said no offence had been registered so far.
#WATCH MNS workers vandalised Gujarati signboards at shops in Vasai yesterday after Raj Thackeray in his speech last night said ‘Vasai feels like Gujarat these days.’ pic.twitter.com/XiUGiWV2DT
— ANI (@ANI) March 19, 2018
The incident came two days after Raj Thackeray called for opposition unity and a “Modi-mukt Bharat” by 2019.
Addressing party workers at a rally at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai on Saturday, Thackeray said, “The country is fed up with the false promises made by (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and his government.”
“All opposition parties should come together to get rid of the BJP-led NDA government to ensure a “Modi-mukt Bharat,” he said, while reminding the audience of the BJPs “Congress-mukt Bharat” slogan.
In July last year, some workers of the MNS had protested against a jewellery shop in Dadar and a hotel in the Mahim area of Mumbai, asking them to remove the signboards in Gujarati.
Following the protests, the two establishments removed the Gujarati signboards.
While the owners of the establishment did not lodge any complaint against the MNS cadres, seven of them were then arrested for “illegal gathering” in Mahim.
In another instance, MNS workers vandalised local shops in Vikhroli for not displaying their name in Marathi on their signboards in November last year.
Later, a scuffle broke out between the activists and shopkeepers, in which several people from both sides were injured.
