" Hindi Hai Hum, Watan Hai Hindustan Hamara": 26/11 Hero Amid Language Row
"The dream of a developed India will only come true when we will walk together with one language. And we say ' Hindi hain hum, watan hai Hindustan hamara (Indians we are, India is our land)'," he told NDTV, in an interview, underlining the theme of oneness.
Maharashtra has been in the spotlight for multiple incidents of targeted violence where the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena or MNS leaders went on a violent spree, singling out Hindi-speaking migrants and thrashing them brutally in public.
"No, I am not angry with anyone. My mind is calm. Your emotions come to your mind when you see a poor person getting beaten up.
And in that Mumbai, the Mumbai that we have considered our heritage, our economic capital, we shed our blood in that Mumbai. We served that Mumbai. And some people who do politics, only for their vote bank," said Mr Teotia.
The former elite commando said he was in Mumbai in 2008 and the MNS workers did the same at that time also.
"The North Indians, the people of UP and Bihar, the workers, the taxi drivers, they beat them up. And it went very badly. And even now, if you see, in February, the banks, their union had issued a circular in the name of MNS, that people like this are coming to the banks and threatening them," he said, adding he is privy to that information as several of his colleagues who are now retired are working in the banks in the city.
The former soldier urged politicians to choose the "politics of development" and not create divisions in society.
The controversy began when some traders in Mumbai were allegedly attacked by MNS workers for not speaking Marathi. The MNS had been demanding that traders and shopkeepers in the city speak Marathi, leading to tensions between the two groups. The police have been working to maintain law and order in the city and prevent any further escalation of the situation.
The MNS has been advocating for the use of Marathi in public places and has been critical of those who do not speak the language. The party's chief, Raj Thackeray, has been vocal about the need for people to learn and speak Marathi, especially in Maharashtra.
Citing the example of defence, Mr Teotia said it doesn't matter which state you come from, the language will always be Hindi.
"Whether you are from Kashmir, or you are from Kanyakumari, or you are from Kutch, or you are from Kohima, it does not matter. Your language will always be Hindi. We keep India at the top," said the former soldier.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Indian Express
3 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Bridges and potholes: India's monsoon economy stimulus
How big a problem is it? It is competitive. Last month before monsoon, the Karnataka PWD set a target of filling 3,400 potholes a day in Bengaluru. Meanwhile, the PWD in Delhi claimed to have set a 'world record' by filling 3,433 potholes in a day. The authorities in Bengaluru and Delhi seem to have rationalised that potholes are a part of the landscape. A minister from Madhya Pradesh underlined the horrific reality by simply stating that as long as there are roads, there will be potholes. Destruction caused by flawed construction must be followed by reconstruction. Effectively, this is an extortionary phenomenon—spending taxpayer monies twice for the same work. Between 2021 and 2024, as per the government, over Rs 17,900 crore was spent just maintaining highways—that is roughly Rs 6,000 crore a year. And the amount is rising. In the current financial year, the government will spend Rs 9,599 crore on fixing roads. 'Pothole budgets' also appear in the budgets of state governments and municipal corporations. Last year, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation allocated Rs 545 crore to fix potholes; the allocation as of June this year is Rs 154 crore. In 2019, an information request revealed that the BMC had spent Rs 17,693 on each pothole. In Bengaluru, the PWD last year allocated Rs 660 crore for potholes and its municipality spent Rs7,121 crore on them between 2019 and 2022. The consequences are manifest in human and economic cost. Take death on the roads. In the decade to 2023, over 15 lakh Indians were killed in road accidents. In 2023 alone, there were 4.80 lakh road accidents across the country claiming 1.72 lakh lives—that is, 55 accidents every hour and a death every 3 minutes. Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari, recently said 'I try to hide my face' at international meets because India tops the list of road deaths in the world. Gadkari also revealed that road accidents cost India roughly 3 percent of GDP. India's taxpayers, already forking out stamp duties, income tax, road toll and GST, are forced to bear the risks. There is virtually no city in India that is free of flooding in monsoon. As this column has highlighted, this is primarily because there is a drought of action on urban planning. This week, for instance, Gurugram—once dubbed 'Millennium City'—along with Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru were flooded for hours. Floods kept Nagpur's buses off the roads for long. The pace of haphazard urbanisation in Pune has resulted in the city municipality listing 73 new flood-prone areas. Public policy failures, as I wrote in my book The Gated Republic, have emerged as an alternative business model—be it water, health, education, security or power. The failures of the State impose costs on households—living in cities without pavements, marooned on flooded roads, bearing medical costs of accidents and illnesses, besides refurbishing flooded homes and basement parking spaces. The costs paid by the hapless taxpayer for mitigating these troubles verily morphs into the political economy's annual monsoon stimulus. Read all columns by Shankkar Aiyar Author of The Gated Republic, Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India's 12 Digit Revolution, and Accidental India (
India Today
3 hours ago
- India Today
Trinamool demands apology from Himanta Sarma for 'divisive' Bengali language remark
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has come down heavily on Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over his recent remarks linking the Bengali language to the identification of illegal immigrants. The party accused Sarma of promoting linguistic discrimination and demanded a public apology or his resignation from the constitutional spokesperson and party IT wing head Debangshu Bhattacharya criticised the Assam government's decision to issue an NRC notice to a member of the Rajbanshi community, calling it an overreach of also condemned Sarma's statement that speaking Bengali could help identify Bangladeshis, saying it reflects the BJP's larger pattern of targeting Bengali-speaking individuals. 'Bengali is the third most spoken language in India and second most spoken in Assam,' said Bhattacharya. 'It is shocking that the Chief Minister forgets the contributions of Bengali speakers to the freedom movement and the existence of a state like West Bengal where Bengali is the primary language. The BJP has shown time and again that it is against Bengali-speaking people. Their disrespect towards the language is being noticed.'Echoing similar concerns, TMC MP Sushmita Dev called Sarma's comments a direct attack on the Bengali language and its speakers. She claimed that the BJP has a pattern of harassment against Bengali-speaking individuals in several states.'In Delhi, Odisha and elsewhere, people have been arrested and evicted for merely speaking Bengali. Now, the Assam CM has practically said that listing Bengali as one's mother tongue could make one a suspect illegal migrant. This is linguistic profiling,' she demanded that Sarma retract his statement and issue an apology. 'If he refuses, he must step down. A constitutional post-holder must not encourage division or discrimination based on language,' she added, warning that such rhetoric could reignite unrest in linguistically diverse states like MLA Udayan Guha also expressed concern that not just Muslims, but Bengali-speaking Hindus and members of the Rajbanshi community were being targeted. 'Bengali speakers - regardless of religion - are being marked simply for their language,' he remarks from the Assam CM come amid rising tensions around identity and citizenship in the state. On July 10, Sarma had stated that Bengali-origin Muslims not listing Assamese as their mother tongue would help the government identify the number of dismissed concerns that fewer people choosing Assamese would threaten the language's existence, asserting, 'Assamese will remain where it is.'The backlash also comes as the Assam government intensifies eviction drives. In Goalpara district, authorities recently cleared 140 hectares of forest land in Paikan Reserve Forest, displacing over 1,000 families. Opposition parties claim many of those affected were Bengali-speaking Dhubri, the government has reportedly demolished homes of around 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families to make way for a power project, further fuelling allegations of targeted leaders warned that linguistic discrimination, coupled with forced evictions and profiling, could deepen alienation and trigger unrest. They urged the public to see through what they called the BJP's divisive politics and reject the targeting of any group based on language.- EndsMust Watch
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
Nations with worse rights record target India: Justice Kant
File photo: Justice Surya Kant (Picture credit: PTI) NEW DELHI: Justice Surya Kant, who would be the next CJI, told the world community that India, with a robust mechanism for protection of human rights, is often targeted by countries with rigid immigration policies & a documented tendency to use excessive force for minor violations. Bringing back memories of cruel treatments meted out to immigrants and Indians by police of foreign countries, Justice Kant told a gathering of eminent lawyers and social scientists at Stockholm that "India has historically demonstrated a strong commitment to human rights, rooted in its constitutional framework and heritage, long before these conversations gained global traction." "To be candid, it is somewhat paradoxical when countries with some of the most rigid immigration policies - and a documented tendency to resort to excessive use of force, even in response to minor infractions - position themselves as foremost champions of human rights. Such critiques, when unaccompanied by self-reflection or contextual understanding, undermine the values they claim to uphold," he said. On Saturday in Gothenburg, he pitched India as a country that can provide a robust, fair, yet cost-effective arbitration destination for foreign firms. "To popularise international arbitration, any sovereign nation must provide a foundational assurance to foreign investors and parties that their rights and interests will be protected. India, in this regard, stands on firm ground." He said India puts a premium on rule of law andthe independent judiciary has demonstrated its ability to safeguard the interest of parties to an arbitration irrespective of the country of their origin.
