Raj Thackeray's Mumbai Warning: Why Jitendra Singh's "Bombay" Remark Sparks Fury

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Wednesday strongly criticised the minister, saying the statement “clearly appears to be a symbol of the government's mindset".

"And what is this mindset? Well, the plot to separate Mumbai — which has always belonged to the Marathi people -- from Maharashtra was foiled by Marathi leaders and the public. And our Marathi Mumbai remained in Maharashtra. Now, the bitterness that's been festering in their bellies for decades is starting to spill out once again," Raj Thackeray said in a post on X. He asserted the central government appears uncomfortable with the name “Mumbai” and prefers “Bombay” instead.

"In truth, Jitendra Singh has no connection to Mumbai, nor to Maharashtra, nor to Gujarat. He hails from Jammu... but his aim is to earn praise from the top leadership by reading their minds and speaking accordingly,” he added, alleging attempts to gradually link Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to Gujarat and urging Marathi people to take note.

"On this occasion, my appeal is not just to the people of Mumbai but to all Marathi folks living in the entire MMR region: it's time to open your eyes. The name 'Mumbai' irks them because it is named after Mumbadevi, the original goddess of Mumbai -- our Mumbai. All her children are the Marathi people who have lived here for generations. You and your city grate on them," Raj Thackeray wrote.

He also warned that the Centre had tried to wrest control of Chandigarh from Punjab and, after facing all-party opposition, retreated --ut he called that a temporary withdrawal and said a "similar" plan was "100 per cent brewing" for Mumbai.

"They don't want 'Mumbai' -- they want 'Bombay'. Through this, an attempt to quietly take control of the city is definitely underway. First Mumbai, and then the entire MMR region will be seized and linked to Gujarat! So wake up, Marathi people. We're already seeing every day how central agents, industrialists and the like have started taking over everything here! It’s high time the Marathi people realise this," he said.

Raj Thackeray's attack on Minister Singh comes ahead of the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, in which he and his cousin Uddhav Thackeray -- who leads Shiv Sena (UBT) -- are expected to campaign together on the issue of protecting the "Marathi Manoos" and appealing to voters to thwart what they call attempts by the BJP-led Centre to “separate” Mumbai from Maharashtra. MNS workers reportedly put up banners outside the IIT campus reading "IIT Mumbai, Not IIT Bombay".

The BJP reacted to Raj Thackeray’s criticism by accusing him of peddling “freestyle allegations” and relying on politics rather than facts. State party media in-charge Navnath Ban, in a post on X, noted that the decision to officially adopt the name “Mumbai” was taken when the Shiv Sena-BJP government was in power in the state, and said it was a BJP leader who first pushed the usage of “Mumbai” at the national level.

“It was BJP’s Ram Naik who, for the first time in Parliament, referred to it as ‘Mumbai’ instead of ‘Bombay’ and thereby established this change at the national level,” Ban wrote, adding that Raj Thackeray seemed to have forgotten this history, perhaps because he is seeking an alliance with Uddhav Thackeray. “While the central government is providing world-class connectivity to Mumbai–MMR, some people get politically dizzy, which is why the Gujarat issue is being dragged in. In truth, the central government is working on major projects for the development of Mumbai–MMR. Through projects like the Metro, bullet train, coastal road connectivity and multimodal corridors, there is the potential to elevate the country's financial capital to a global level,” the BJP statement said.

Ban further said that seeing development projects makes “some people's political nausea” increase, prompting what he called “a bogus Gujarat bogey” to be raised for fear-mongering politics. He urged Mumbaikars to support Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as the leader who will “take Maharashtra to number one.”

- IANS