Maharashtra minister compares assaults on non-Marathi speakers in state to Pahalgam terror attack
The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said that Hindus were being targeted in such incidents.
Maharashtra minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashish Shelar on Sunday drew a parallel between the recent cases of assault on non-Marathi speakers in the state and the terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which left 26 persons dead.
He said that Hindus were targeted in these incidents.
“In Pahalgam, people were killed because of their religion,” PTI quoted Shelar as saying at a press conference in Mumbai. “Here in Maharashtra, Hindus are being assaulted only because of the language they speak. What’s the difference?”
During the attack on April 22, the terrorists at Baisaran had targeted tourists after asking their names to ascertain their religion. All but three of those killed were Hindu.
Shelar’s remarks came a week after seven unidentified persons, believed to be members of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, assaulted a shopkeeper in Thane district for not speaking in Marathi.
On Saturday, suspected workers of the party also vandalised the Mumbai office of entrepreneur Sushil Kedia, a day after he posted on social media that he had lived in the city for 30 years without learning Marathi “properly”.
#WATCH | Mumbai: On Marathi language row, Maharashtra Minister Ashish Shelar says, "All these incidents cause pain, suffering, and mental distress. In Pahalgam, they shot them after asking about their religion. And here they beat up the innocent Hindus just because of the… pic.twitter.com/rXAa3iskQc
— ANI (@ANI) July 6, 2025
The incidents took place amid an escalating row in Maharashtra, triggered by the state government’s move to make Hindi a “generally” taught third language for Class 1 to Class 5 in Marathi and English medium schools.
On June 29, the government withdrew the resolution following widespread backlash.
During the press conference, Shelar said that the BJP-led government in the state would protect both Marathi pride and the rights of non-Marathi residents.
“Marathi is not a political issue for us,” the news agency quoted him as saying.
The minister, without naming anyone, added that some leaders were enjoying how “Hindus” are being assaulted, PTI reported.
The BJP leader also criticised the recent show of unity between former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and his cousin Raj Thackeray, calling it an “opportunistic alliance”.
On Saturday, the two leaders held a joint “victory rally”, a first in nearly two decades, to celebrate the rollback of the government order on the three-language policy.
