Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) are at loggerheads in the Hindi language row. While the MNS chief has accused the government of ignoring Marathi, Fadnavis slammed the former for opposing one of India’s languages — Hindi and not English. Hours after Thackeray warned the government to withdraw the three-language education format that makes Hindi technically compulsory for many in the state or face its wrath, Fadnavis hit back.

Speaking to the media, Fadnavis mentioned that he was unable to understand why a few people were opposing Hindi, but not English, despite Hindi being one of India’s own languages. “I understand English is the language of communication. But, why oppose teaching a language native to our country to students?” the CM said.

Earlier in the day, speaking to media persons at his Dadar residence, MNS chief Raj Thackeray warned educational institutions against introducing Hindi as a subject. “I am writing a letter to the principal of all schools to not proceed with Hindi. If anyone does so, they will have to face the wrath of the party,” Thackeray said and urged Marathi writers, poets, educators, intellectuals and Marathi-speaking people to oppose the government decision to implement a three-language formula which includes Hindi in the curriculum.