Under MNS threat, Mumbai does a rewrite

Commercial and shopping hubs in many parts of the city, particularly in the former textile hubs of Worli, Parel and Lalbagh, had bold, new signage in the Devnagari script along with ones in English while even large retail chains in plush South Mumbai bowed to the diktat and displayed Marathi signs in small sizes. The move to reinforce a 1961 law that makes it mandatory for shops and establishments to display signboards in Devnagari as well, was launched by the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) last month—the latest in a series of parochial political games that has gripped Maharashtra this year.

But Thackeray’s MNS, which was lying low after its campaign against north Indian migrants earlier this year, grabbed the issue and took upon itself to not only enforce the BMC order but also expanded it and ordered that Marathi signboards need to be larger than English ones. Shops should choose between signboards and doing business, the party has repeatedly warned.

Meanwhile, Thackeray once again issued a dire warning to businessmen to display Marathi signs prominently and made an emotional appeal to junior policemen across the state to go soft on MNS cadre while they enforced the signboard rule. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who has in the past been accused of delaying action against Thackeray, said the MNS had no business to enforce a BMC rule and warned of strict action if they took the law into their hands.

Mumbai’s Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order), KL Prasad, rubbished the MNS letter to policemen and said his men would not fall prey to such tactics, adding that disciplinary action would be taken against anyone buying into the appeal.