MNS Workers Vandalise Economist Sushil Kedia’s Office After His Remarks On Marathi

The attack by MNS workers came just a day after Sushil Kedia publicly declared that he would not learn Marathi as a form of protest.

This act of violence has further intensified Maharashtra’s simmering linguistic tensions.

Source : Special arrangement

The ongoing debate over Marathi language pride took an ugly turn on Saturday when the office of economist Sushil Kedia—founder of Kedionomics—was allegedly vandalised by workers of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). The incident came just a day after Kedia publicly declared that he would not learn Marathi as a form of protest against what he described as the “gross misconduct” of MNS chief Raj Thackeray.

This act of violence has further intensified Maharashtra’s simmering linguistic tensions, as the state grapples with a heated political and cultural discourse around regional identity and the place of the Marathi language in public life.

Maharashtra: MNS workers vandalized businessman Sushil Kedia’s office after he posted on X refusing to learn Marathi and tagging MNS chief Raj Thackeray pic.twitter.com/RSVocFIF0I

— IANS (@ians_india) July 5, 2025

Vow Against Marathi Learning Sparks Backlash

Kedia, who has lived in Mumbai for over three decades, made his controversial statement on social media platform X, saying: "Do note @RajThackeray I dont know Marathi properly even after living for 30 years in Mumbai & with your gross misconduct I ahve made it a resolve that until such people as you are allowed to pretend to be taking care of Marathi Manus I take pratigya I wont learn Marathi. Kya karna hai bol?"

His posts also alleged intimidation by MNS supporters: "Shri @RajThackeray threatening me by 100s of your workers is not going to make me a fluent Marathi speaker.  If I am not confident of the quality of Marathi I can speak, with so much threatening around even more fear happens that if I miss speaking any word(s) improperly more violence will happen. Get the point. Love, not threat makes people get assimilated together.

Shri @RajThackeray threatening me by 100s of your workers is not going to make me a fluent Marathi speaker.

If I am not confident of the quality of Marathi I can speak, with so much threatening around even more fear happens that if I miss speaking any word(s) improperly more…

— Sushil Kedia (@sushilkedia) July 4, 2025