As news emerged that a 19-year-old student residing on the outskirts of Mumbai died by suicide after allegedly being beaten up for speaking in Hindi on a train, the BJP decided to organise a ‘Pray for Wisdom’ meeting at the late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s memorial in Dadar on Saturday, November 22.
According to reports, the student, while travelling to college in an Ambernath-Kalyan local train, had a minor argument with a group of other passengers over a language issue, and violence allegedly ensued, leading to depression.
The meeting organised by the BJP Mumbai unit aims to promote harmony and discourage politics based on linguistic and regional differences. In recent months, tensions over language have risen in Mumbai. In July, a Mira Road shopkeeper who reportedly refused to speak in Marathi was slapped by a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activist. Many feel that the Marathi versus non-Marathi issue could see further escalation ahead of the BMC election.
