The Violent Push For Marathi Signboards By MNS Workers

Since the early 1990s, Maharashtra has been a silent witness to the acts of vandalism by the Shiv Sena against shops and establishments that did not put up the signboards in Marathi. Then, led by verbal attacks of such “misdeeds” by late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, his party men had gone on a “vandalism drive” against the businesses of non-Marathi communities in the state. To keep the Shiv Sainiks at bay, shopkeepers had started writing out the names in Marathi but in a much smaller font size than the signages in English or other languages. Since October this year, the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, has restarted the drive against shops and establishments which do not have Marathi signboards.     

In September this year, the Supreme Court had directed all retailers to display signboards in Marathi and had set a two-month deadline for its implementation. The Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association had challenged the decision of the Maharashtra government making it mandatory for all shops and establishments to display signboards in Marathi.       

Later in October, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) started inspection of shops and establishments and issued notices to thousands of shops for non-compliance. The BMC is also levying a fine of Rs 2000 per staffer per shop for flouting the rules. This action by the BMC came after the SC orders giving shops and establishments a two-month deadline to install Marathi signboards across Maharashtra. The civic body will also register an offence against the violators and bring these violations to the SC’s notice. 

In March 2022, the Maharashtra Government through the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) (Amendment) Act, 2022, mandated the display of the nameboard in Marathi written in Devnagari script only. The Act also mandates that the font in Marathi should be bigger than that of any other language if more than one language is used. If the nameboard is written in English, then the Marathi font should be in the same size as the former.    

According to the law, all commercial establishments should display their nameboards in Marathi in front of the establishment. 

In 2018, the state government had made it mandatory for every shop and establishment in Maharashtra to have Marathi signboards written in the Devnagari script. In many cases while the name of shop or establishment written in English was of a larger font size, the display in Marathi was in a smaller size. However, those with less than 10 employees had tried to evade this rule.

In October, there were two instances of party workers of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena vandalizing shops with Gujarati signboards in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai. In November, Thackeray had in a media interaction criticized the Eknath Shinde led-Maharashtra Government for not walking its talk. He had stated that despite an SC order the state government had failed to implement the same. Criticizing the government, Thackeray had said that the state only plays lip service to the Marathi and Hindutva issues. “They talk about the ideologies of Balasaheb Thackeray but do not follow them or act on them.  Despite a court order on the Marathi signboard issue, they have been unable to implement it,” Thackeray had said.  

In early December, MNS partymen vandalized shops and threw stones at shops in the Jangli Maharaj Road area in Pune. These shops did not have signages in Marathi, therefore they were vandalized, said the MNS. The local Pune leaders of the party had written to the Pune Municipal Corporation demanding legal action against those shops and establishments in that city which had flouted the mandatory rule of the government pertaining to Marathi signages. The MNS had warned of an agitation if the civic body did not initiate action against the offenders. Since no action was initiated by the civic body within the given deadline, the party workers vandalized and pelted stones at these shops.  

MNS’s history of such vandalism dates back to 2017, when they damaged and destroyed shops with English signboards. They had then attacked high-end international brands located in a swanky mall in the Lower Parel area in central Mumbai. In March 2018, after Raj Thackeray had called for a Modi-mukt India, his partymen vandalized shops with Gujarati signboards in Mumbai’s western suburbs.