BJP Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar slams MVA over three-language policy issue

BJP Mumbai President Ashish Shelar on Monday hit back at Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray amid MVAs protest against the threelanguage policy stating that the BJP has won the fight reported news agency ANISpeaking to reporters outside the Maharashtra Assembly Shelar said In the true sense the Mahayuti government and Devendra Fadnavis maintained complete loyalty to the Marathi mind Marathi language and Marathi people BJP did not make it a prestige issue reported ANIHe added Maharashtra won Marathi Manus Marathi people won and I would say BJP won in this fight reported ANIShelar claimed that the work towards the threelanguage policy began when Uddhav Thackeray was the Chief Minister of MaharashtraUddhav Thackeray made it a political issue Uddhav Thackeray formed a group as the Chief Minister Under the chairmanship of Mashelkar in which Uddhav also put his own partys figure in the form of Kadam Therefore it is clear that the UBT has a hand in it Shelar told reportersHe added The experts prepared the report and Uddhav Thackeray signed the minutesMeanwhile Maharashtra Minister Uday Samant alleged that MVA is politicising the issue to make it a poll plank for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC electionsUday Samant said There is no truth in the allegations made by the opposition parties because now the battle of ideology has begun This controversy has been raised for the BMC election and therefore the slogan has become that M stands not for Marathi but for Municipal Corporation reported ANIMaharashtra Minister Shambhuraj Desai also criticised Thackeray saying he just wants sympathy from the Marathi communityWhen he Uddhav Thackeray was the CM the Mashelkar Committee report came out and it was their own government and their own cabinet that first accepted this report They want to make an issue out of this topic to gain the sympathy of the Marathi community All these matters will come up in the House Uddhav Thackeray wants the credit for the new committee formed by the government whose report is expected in the next three months In the coming one or two days we will make things crystal clear in the Assembly Desai told ANIEarlier today Uddhav Thackeray celebrated the withdrawal of the threelanguage policy in the state stating that they had punched Marathi hatersWe have punched Marathi haters this unity should remain as it is We appreciate the political parties that came together with us despite different stands Temporarily they the Government have cancelled the GR If they hadnt cancelled they would have seen the protest on 5th July Many leaders from Eknath Shindes Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawars NCP are going to join us Thackeray told reportersMentioning the committee formed to look into the threelanguage policy he said A new committee led by Dr Narendra Jadhav will report on this The government has appointed financial experts for the education sectors decision We will stage a victory rally on 5th JulyThe Maharashtra government came under fire on April 16 as they passed a resolution that mandated Hindi as the compulsory third language in Marathi and Englishmedium schoolsHowever in response to the backlash the government revised the policy on June 17 through an amended resolution stating Hindi will be the third language For those who want to learn another language at least 20 willing students are requiredOn June 24 Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stated that the final decision regarding the threelanguage formula would be taken only after discussions with litterateurs language experts political leaders and all other concerned parties which has now led to the cancellation of both resolutions and the formation of a committee under Narendra JadhavWith inputs from ANI