The stage is now set for the two Thackeray cousins — Uddhav and Raj — to take out a joint morcha to the Azad Maidan on July 5 in protest against the BJP-led MahaYuti Government’s decision to make Hindi as a “third language” for the 1st to 5th standard students in Marathi and English medium schools in the state.
A day after they announced their plans to take separate morchas on the Hindi “imposition” issue, Uddhav and Raj reconsidered their earlier plans and announced that their parties would come together to take one single morcha to Azad Maidan in south Mumbai on July 5 to force the Devendra Fadnavis government to thrust Hindi as the third language in schools in the state.
Making an announcement by the joint morcha, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Rajya Sabha member and party’s chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut, on Friday morning took to twitter to announce: “Jai Maharashtra… There will be a single and united march against compulsory Hindi in Maharashtra schools. Thackeray is the brand”
Hours earlier, Raj Thackeray took to “X” to announce that there is a small charge in the earlier plan and that the morcha will be held on July 5 (Saturday).
“For the Marathi people, a march was announced for the upcoming 6th of July. There is a slight change in that plan; the march will now take place on Saturday, July 5, at 10 AM instead of Sunday, July 6. The location and all other details remain unchanged. Therefore, the media and the people of Maharashtra should take note of this change”
“There will be no flags in that march. The entire march will be taken out by the Marathi people. The Marathi agenda will be the only focus. The leadership of that march will be by a Marathi person. Let the Government understand once and for all what is in the hearts of Maharashtra.”
“I also want to see who participates in this march and who chooses not to come. We will speak with educationists and linguists. We will invite all students and parents to the march. Let the Government understand once and for all what is in the hearts of Maharashtra. Everyone will participate in the anti-Hindi march. We will speak with all political parties in Maharashtra. Maharashtra is bigger than any dispute and you will realize this on the morcha day,” Raj wrote.
Both the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief and MNS president have appealed to all Marathi-speaking citizens, writers, artists, actors, and sportspersons—to support the initiatives.
On his part, Uddhav said: “The BJP is trying to divide people on the basis of language. The BJP is imposing a language Emergency in the state. They are making Hindi compulsory in the predominantly Marathi speaking state. We are not against Hindi but such an imposition”
Castigating the Devendra Fadnavis-led government for “imposing” Hindi on students in schools in the state, Uddhav said the Hindi language decision had stemmed from “linguistic emergency” declared by the ruling BJP.
“What is happening is nothing but a `linguistic emergency’. India’s federal structure is built around linguistic states, but the government is not implementing policies to promote Marathi despite many pleas and efforts as part of the BJP’s covert agenda,” the Sena (UBT) chief said.
“We are not against Hindi or any other language. It’s an issue of Marathi pride. The Hindi film industry was born in Maharashtra, but forcibly implementing the decision is not acceptable. This is a move to impose ‘one language, one party’. So we are taking it to the streets. The matter can be resolved in two minutes if the chief minister rolls back the decision,” Uddhav said.
It may be recalled that in its circular dated June 17, 2025 which amended its earlier order issued on April 16, 2025, the State Education department stated that Hindi would “generally” be the third language, instead of being “mandatory”, but gave an option to opt out of Hindi if 20 students per grade in a school expressed the desire to study any Indian language other than Hindi.
“If the students want to opt for any other Indian language other than Hindi as a third language, the class strength should be at least 20 and those students would be taught the language they selected, either in school by appointing a teacher or through online mode,” the circular had said.