Uddhav Thackeray meets CM Devendra Fadnavis amid language row in Maharashtra

A day after the coalition government hit out at the Central government over Hindi-imposition in primary schools, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday had a meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The encounter, that went on almost 20 minutes, took place in the room of Legislative Council Chairman Ram Shinde.

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A compilation of news articles against the proposal of introducing Hindi as the third language in Maharashtra due to the perceived linguistic imposition, as claimed by proponents of the move, was given by Thackeray to the Chief Minister as provided by the Shiv Sena (UBT).

Previously, Shiv Sena (UBT) Chief explained that his party cannot be considered as hostile to the Hindi language but claimed that some groups made the people of Marathi inferior and equated them to terrorists.

The meeting followed a veiled attack a day earlier by the Maharashtra Chief Minister on Uddhav Thackeray, who had been invited to join the treasury benches (ruling side) in the Vidhan Parishad by saying that his government does not have any scope to be in the Opposition until 2029.

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This was said by Fadnavis on the day of the farewell of Uddhav Thackeray in the Maharashtra Vidhan Parishad.

"At least till 2029, there is no scope for us to come there (Opposition). Uddhav Ji can think about the scope of coming to this side (ruling party) and that can be thought about in a different way, but there is absolutely no scope left for us to come there (Opposition)," Fadnavis said.

On July 5, the Shiv Sena (UBT) along with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) convened a joint rally known as the Awaaz Marathicha at the Worli Dome in the city of Mumbai. It was the first stage together of Uddhav and Raj Thackeray in almost two decades. This was seen following the scrapping of two Government Resolutions (GRs) by the Maharashtra government to introduce Hindi as the third language to be studied on a compulsory basis.

Orders withdrawn now, concerned with the application of three-language recipe in state schools, had generated mass-protests by Shiv Sena (UBT), MNS and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction).

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