Virar: A migrant autorickshaw driver in Virar, a town near Mumbai, was allegedly assaulted and coerced into apologising by a group of Shiv Sena (UBT) workers, after a viral video surfaced in which he refused to speak in Marathi.
The video, which triggered a social media storm earlier this week, shows the driver saying defiantly in Hindi:
“Hindi bolunga, Bhojpuri bolunga, par Marathi nahi bolunga” (I’ll speak Hindi, I’ll speak Bhojpuri, but not Marathi).
In another part of the clip, he is heard confronting a passenger, saying: “Main Hindi bolunga, tujhe kya karna hai? Jo karna hai kar le” (I’ll speak in Hindi—what will you do? Do whatever you want).
This video drew outrage among local political groups and was widely circulated on social platforms. On Saturday, a group allegedly affiliated with Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) confronted the driver near Virar railway station. According to eyewitnesses, he was slapped multiple times, including by women, on a crowded street and was forced to apologise on camera.
In the video of the assault, the autorickshaw driver is seen folding his hands and saying, “I apologise to the people of Maharashtra for insulting Marathi.”
It has been alleged that the driver had earlier made derogatory remarks not only about the Marathi language but also about Maharashtra and its cultural icons, further fuelling the backlash. No formal complaint has been registered with the police so far.
The incident has once again sparked intense debates over linguistic identity, regional pride, migrant integration, and rising vigilantism in Maharashtra.
This is not the first such episode. On June 29, a similar case occurred in Mira Road, where a shopkeeper named Babulal Chaudhary was reportedly assaulted by members of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for refusing to speak in Marathi.
