'People will give befitting reply to those...': Uddhav Thackeray's fresh warning on Maharashtra Day

New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday (April 30, 2022) said that people will give a befitting reply to those trying to tarnish the state's image. In a statement released ahead of Maharashtra Day, he said that the state will continue to march ahead "no matter how many crises" it faces.

Maharashtra is known for communal harmony and its people will foil attempts to vitiate the atmosphere of brotherhood in the state, the Chief Minister said on the eve of the state's foundation day.

Maharashtra, notably, was formed on May 1, 1960, and the state has been currently witnessing a political slugfest between the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Recently, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray had also sought to corner the Shiv Sena, which swears by `Hindutva', by demanding that loudspeakers on mosques be removed.

Besides Raj Thackeray's `ultimatum' on loudspeakers, the state also saw a political row playing out when independent MP Navneet Rana and her husband and MLA Ravi Rana announced that they would recite the Hanuman Chalisa in front of Uddhav Thackeray's private residence `Matoshree' in Mumbai. The couple, however, dropped the plan, but were arrested for `sedition' and `promoting enmity between different groups'.

"The people of Maharashtra are capable of giving a befitting reply if anyone is hatching a conspiracy to hurt the pride of Maharashtra and defame it," chief minister Thackeray said as he greeted people ahead of `Maharashtra Din'.

संयुक्त महाराष्ट्राच्या चळवळीत प्राणाची आहुती देणाऱ्या हुतात्म्यांना महाराष्ट्र दिनानिमित्त मुख्यमंत्री उद्धव बाळासाहेब ठाकरे यांनी हुतात्मा चौक येथील स्मारकास पुष्पचक्र अर्पण करून अभिवादन केले. pic.twitter.com/tTdRdDcDNv — CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) May 1, 2022

Maharashtra will continue to march ahead "no matter how many crises" it faces, and people will never forget the sacrifices of those who shed their blood for the cause of `Samyukta (united) Maharashtra', he added.

He also hailed Maharashtra's icons Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai Phule, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, Babasaheb Ambedkar and others.

"Today, unfortunately, the ideology of social revolution of these great leaders is being ignored by ending the harmony among castes and religions in Maharashtra for the sake of self-interest and ambition," Thackeray said.

"Maharashtra is known for communal harmony, restraint and conducting itself with conscience," he added.

(With agency inputs)