New revelations of a businessman who was victim of Mumbai's lafa scandal: I am a native of Rajasthan, 10-12 lafas were shaken when I spoke Hindi, i started getting calls since morning, received threats of cross FIR

Once again the linguistic controversy of Marathi V/S non-Marathi has made headlines in the media. The reason behind this is the 1 minute 1 second video that has gone viral on social media. The incident, which took place in Mumbai's Mira Road area, has spread across the country. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists threw around 10 to 12 luffas to a trader as he did not speak Marathi. For the last four days, the video has gone viral with the claim that the Gujarati businessman was slapped for not speaking Marathi language. The politicians have protested as well as provoked the common people, although this businessman Babulal Chaudhary is not from Gujarat, but originally from Rajasthan. Divya Bhaskar contacted the victim's businessman and learned about the incident of the day, the events of the next day and their sufferings. In a conversation of about half an hour, businessman Babulal Chaudhary raised his voice. Read the plight of 48-year-old Babulal Chaudhary, who runs a shop called 'Jodhpur Sweet Shop' in Mira Road area of Mumbai. Babulal Chaudhary said, "I am a native of Rajasthan and have been working in Mumbai since 2007. My family lives in Mumbai, the children also study in the school here. I run a snack-sweet shop in the Mira Road area. I have three different shops. On Sunday, The 29th, an event was organized, in which people were protesting demanding that Marathi should be given priority. My other shop was working, so I had also reached the shop where the incident took place ten minutes ago. On reaching the shop, I was standing in front of the breakfast counter of my shop, explaining to the boy working in the shop what to put where to put it. On the other hand, it must have been almost half an hour since these people's program started. Seven people came to my shop in this hour. Three of them were standing very close to me. The other four were standing a short distance away. Three people standing next to me gestured to the other who came with them and asked them to come close to me. All this has been recorded in the CCTV camera of my shop. Soon, they started abusing me for not speaking Marathi, though I didn't pay much attention to it. One of these three men went to those four people and called me. Thus seven people had gathered around me. One of them asked the boy working in my shop for a bottle of water and asked if he knew Marathi or not. So I replied, sir... This boy is from Uttar Pradesh. It's been seven months at work, so she doesn't know Marathi. One of them told me, you are the owner of the shop, you should know that now the law has been made that Marathi is mandatory. Since you are a Seth, only a Marathi-speaking person should be hired in the shop. Everyone speaks in Hindi, doesn't they speak Marathi? I said, 'Sir, when did this law come into being? I don't know that. My focus is only on the shop work. He said, the law was made only yesterday. I talk to customers with love and was interacting with these people in the same way, but they kept questioning. I asked, 'In which state is your shop? I smiled and replied, "Spoke in Maharashtra, do you know what language is spoken in Maharashtra? I said, all languages are spoken here. At this time, a tall man in a red shirt abused me in Marathi and then slapped me. I was stunned to see his behaviour. I also did not understand what wrong I had done, but before I could react, two or three other people also started beating me. I said, sir, talk calmly... But they kept beating. I got 10 to 12 jumps. However, within a few minutes, people from around came and calmed the matter down. Then the seven people went on abusing and abusing. This is the first time such an incident has happened in our area. Many local mns leaders come to my shop. I respect people from all parties. It was eleven o'clock in the night. I don't know what to do. There were many thoughts as to what the housemates would say after the incident. How will my impression be in the market? Because I knew that my video had also been taken down. I was not afraid that they would make the video viral. I went straight home from the shop and fell asleep without saying anything to anyone. I wake up at 5 a.m., but woke up at 10 a.m. in tension the next day after the assault. I got a call from a friend of mine in the morning that your video has gone viral. The same people made the video and uploaded it on social media. Sandeep Rane's (MNS president of Mira-Bhayandar) had called me. "What our people have done is wrong. I apologize. Come to my office in the evening, I ask them for your forgiveness. I said, my eyebrows have become garbage. I called up the business leaders around my shop and asked what should be done after such an incident. Together we decided to lodge a police complaint. I had gone alone to file a police complaint and did not take anyone with me. The police first took only the application, so I called one of our leaders. "We have CCTV footage of the shop. There is also a video posted by them on Facebook. I'll bring a lawyer. We have to file a police complaint. We took out a rally in protest against the incident in which business leaders and people from our community in Rajasthan also gathered. We have also protested by shutting down. When we reached the police station at night for permission for the rally, we came to know that some people from the MNS had also come to file a cross FIR against me. They called my neighbour who came with me out of the police station and said, 'Explain to Babulal, otherwise we will also file a police complaint against him.' If the case goes on for a long time, it will have no meaning. Don't do a rally. We said we have messaged everyone, so we will hold a rally. Then we will do as the society and the traders say. People have told me that we are with you. I haven't asked for police protection yet, but traders are saying you ask for police protection. The police have identified three accused in the case — Pramod Nilekar, Karan Kandangire and Akshay Salve — while the remaining four accused are yet to be identified. Why was the language controversy suddenly fresh? The language controversy in Mumbai is not new, but on April 16, Maharashtra decided to implement the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, making Hindi a mandatory third language for students of classes 1 to 5 in Marathi and English medium schools in the state, although many organisations and political parties in Maharashtra protested against making Hindi compulsory. Due to this, the state government withdrew the decision to make Hindi mandatory on April 22. Speaking to reporters, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said students will be able to choose a third language as per their choice. Hindi will not be compulsory.