Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Thursday dared Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad to perform the Chhat puja at Marina beach in Chennai, to oppose the imposition of Tamil by the Karunanidhi government, in schools across the state.
Thackeray's comment was in response to Lalu's recent statement, that he would come to Mumbai to perform the Chhat puja, in the wake of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray's anti-North Indian stir.
Thackeray, in an editorial published in party mouthpiece Saamana, said, "The Karunanidhi government has issued an ordinance making Tamil compulsory in all schools in the state."
"Lalu, who has turned Bihar into hell, should hold a mela of Biharis in Tamil Nadu, ruled by his ally at the Centre, to champion the cause of North Indians there."
Launching a scathing attack on the reported demand by some local North Indian Congress leaders that Hindi be made an official language in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Thackeray said, "Let them try this out in Chennai, Banglore, Hyderabad, Kolkota and Guwahati first."
"The sons of soil here will not tolerate any insult to the status of Marathi and Mumbai," the edit added.
Thackeray said Congress leaders, who are demanding the imposition of Hindi on Mumbai's civic body, should be prosecuted by the Maharashtra government and put behind bars.
Reacting to the statement by state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh that Mumbai's doors were open to all, he said, "Mumbai is being exploited criminally and economically at the cost of the Bhoomiputras who have remained underprivileged."
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