Nationalist Congress Party–Sharad Chandra Pawar (NCP-SCP) MLA Rohit Pawar on Monday strongly condemned BJP MP Nishikant Dubey for equating opposition parties in Maharashtra—including Shiv Sena (UBT), MNS, and NCP-SCP—with terrorist figures like Maulana Masood Azhar and Dawood Ibrahim, amid ongoing tensions over the Marathi-Hindi language divide.
In a sharp rebuke, Pawar urged Dubey to avoid applying “Bihar-style election tactics” to Maharashtra, warning that such divisive rhetoric disrupts the state’s inclusive ethos.
“We are simply saying that anyone who insults the Marathi language or the state will not be tolerated. Dubey is bringing election strategies meant for Bihar and Bengal into Maharashtra. That won’t work here,” Pawar told ANI.
Dubey’s controversial remarks, made via social media platform X (formerly Twitter), drew widespread backlash. In one post, Dubey compared prominent Maharashtra-based opposition parties to terrorists responsible for ethnic cleansing and bombings, suggesting they are targeting Hindi-speaking people in the same way.
“What’s the difference between Shiv Sena (UBT), MNS, NCP-Pawar, and those like Salauddin and Dawood who terrorised Hindus?” he wrote, sparking outrage across political lines.
In another inflammatory tweet, Dubey said, “Those who beat Hindi-speaking people in Mumbai… try doing that to Urdu-speaking people. Even a dog becomes a lion in its own home.”
Pawar also condemned Maharashtra BJP leader Ashish Shelar, who earlier likened recent language-based violence in the state to the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu & Kashmir.
“Comparing Marathi people to terrorists is unacceptable. Shelar should reflect on the dangerous language used by senior members of his own party,” said Pawar.
Shelar had remarked that just as people were targeted in Pahalgam based on religion, innocent people in Maharashtra were being beaten over language—drawing a direct parallel between communal terrorism and the recent Marathi-Hindi clashes.
The BJP leaders’ remarks come in the wake of violent incidents and vandalism in Maharashtra amid growing tension over language identity. Recently, five MNS workers were arrested for vandalising the office of entrepreneur Sushil Kedia in Mumbai’s Worli area.
In another viral video, a shopkeeper in Mira-Bhayandar was reportedly assaulted by men affiliated with a regional party for not speaking in Marathi.
A case has been filed under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.
The escalating war of words and street-level tensions underline the deepening fault lines in Maharashtra’s identity politics, with the Marathi-Hindi divide now becoming a flashpoint for larger political battles ahead of the upcoming elections.