Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi on Thursday said that his remark a day earlier that knowing Marathi was not necessary to live in Mumbai had been “misinterpreted”, PTI reported.

His statement came after a controversy erupted over his remark, with the Opposition parties calling for Joshi to be booked for treason.

At an event in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar area on Wednesday, Joshi had said that the city did not have a single language.

“It has many languages,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying. “Here certain areas have their own language. The language of Ghatkopar is Gujarati. Whereas in Girgaon, you will have fewer Hindi speakers and more Marathi speakers.”

He added: “So it is that any individual coming to Mumbai may not necessarily learn Marathi.”

In response, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) chief Uddhav Thackeray said that Joshi should be booked for treason, The Indian Express reported. Thackeray said that Joshi’s remark reflected the “hidden agenda” of the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party to “divide” Mumbai.

The RSS is the parent organisation of the BJP.

“It has been a long time since they raked up the India-Pakistan issue,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying. “But it is ‘batenge toh katenge’. It’s not just a Marathi vs non-Marathi issue, but also Maratha vs non-Marathas and the formula to capture the state by them [BJP].”

Thackeray also challenged Joshi to make such comments in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala or West Bengal and return safely. “Just because the Marathi manoos are welcoming does not mean anyone can thrash them,” he added.

Congress leader Nana Patole accused the RSS and the BJP of diverting attention from problems such as the farmers’ crisis and unemployment by sparking debates about languages, India Today reported.

“Today, farmers’ crops are drying up in Maharashtra,” India Today quoted him as saying. “Can’t the RSS give suggestions to the government on this? Is the RSS not concerned about unemployment in Maharashtra? RSS and BJP are diverting attention from the main issues by creating such debates.”

Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) said that such remarks from the top RSS leadership provide “grounds to question the motive behind undermining the importance of the state and its mother tongue”.

On Thursday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that while he had “not heard what Bhaiyyaji has said, but the language of Mumbai and Maharashtra is Marathi”, The Indian Express reported.

“Everyone should learn and speak the language,” Fadnavis said in the Assembly. “If you love and respect your own language, you do the same to other languages. I am sure Bhiayyaji will agree with me.”

Later in the day, Joshi said that “Marathi is the language of Maharashtra and Marathi is also a language of Mumbai because the city is a part of Maharashtra”. There should be no confusion about it, Joshi said.

“In India, people who speak different languages stay together and this is the speciality of the country,” he added. “In Mumbai, people from several parts of the country stay, and we want them to learn and speak Marathi.”