In yet another instance of a language row, workers of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) assaulted a local bank employee for defending the use of Hindi in Mumbai’s Lonavala area.

A video of the assault has emerged on social media, gaining instant virality. A group of MNS workers are seen threatening the Lonavala branch manager of the Maharashtra Bank, demanding that all its officials speak and transact in Marathi.

According to the MNS workers, although the Maharashtra Bank is a nationalised bank, 99 percent of its customers were Marathis. They argued that rural customers might not be able to understand Hindi and hence insisted that the bank use the local language for communication.

During the discussion, a Marathi-speaking employee interrupted arguing that customer service was not affected by the use of Hindi. As soon as he spoke, one of the MNS workers slapped him, followed by more slaps from other workers.

The shocked Marathi-speaking employee left the branch manager’s cabin.

A similar incident took place where a D-Mart employee was assaulted by MNS workers after he refused to speak in Marathi with a customer. The incident took place at the Versova outlet, Andheri (West).

One of the MNS workers told the employee, “If you want to live and work in Mumbai, you have to speak in Marathi. Otherwise, you can go to your village.”

MNS is led by Raj Thackeray, the nephew of veteran politician, the late Babasaheb Thackeray. The party chief has constantly maintained the use of speaking in Marathi in many events and public gatherings.

On March 30, at a public rally on the occasion of Gudi Padwa, Raj Thackeray reiterated his party’s stand on Marathi being made mandatory for official purposes.