Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday announced that senior Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) official Akhikesh Shukla whose goons allegedly assaulted his Maharashtrian neighbours with iron rods in a suburban Kalyan-based housing society, has been suspended with immediate effect.

The incident snowballed into a serious political issue after a video of the alleged assault on the Maharashtrian family went viral leading to political and social tension. In the video, Shukla and his wife allegedly abused Maharashtrians as “filthy”, accused them of eating meat and fish, after which they were allegedly assaulted with iron rods by Shukla’s goons.

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The incident snowballed into a serious political issue of non-Maharashtrians discriminating against native Maharashtrians on the basis of their local language and food habits, even as the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties attacked the Fadnavis government.

The incident came close on the heels of a similar incident in Girgaum a few days ago where a Marwadi shopkeeper allegedly asked a Maharashtrian customer to speak only in the Marwadi language, since according to him, a “Marwadi party” like the BJP has come to power in Maharashtra.

After the issue was raised in the legislative council, the chief minister said, “Injustice will not be done to Marathi people under any circumstances” as he replied during a discussion on the issue under Legislative Council Rule 289 moved by Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad) member Advocate Anil Parab.

“Akhilesh Shukla has been suspended from his service and an FIR has been registered against him and other accused,” Fadnavis said, showing a copy of the First Information Report (FIR) filed against the senior MTDC official.

“Let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Mumbai as well as Maharashtra always belonged to Maharashtrians, it still does and it always will,” Fadnavis said, as members of the House applauded his statement.

However, Fadnavis rejected allegations by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena that incidents of anti-Maharashtrian discrimination increased after the BJP-dominated Mahayuti government came to power in Maharashtra.

“It is important to know who was responsible for the Marathi population being forced to migrate out of Mumbai after the construction boom during the last few decades,” Fadnavis said, making an indirect reference to the then united Shiv Sena founded by Bal Thackeray, who was succeeded by his son Uddhav Thackeray.

The incident also comes amidst a feeling among a section of the local Maharashtrian population that the BJP is a party which is run by a Gujarati-Marwadi-North Indian lobby, which is least bothered about Maharashtrian sentiments. This feeling significantly increased during the 2024 Maharashtra assembly election campaign after the MVA parties alleged that all the industrial projects which were supposed to come up in Maharashtra eventually ended up being set up in Gujarat instead.