Mumbai: Days after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) supremo Raj Thackeray questioned actor Amitabh Bachchan's loyalty to Maharashtra, stirring up a Marathi vs north Indian debate, two youths – supposedly MNS workers – attacked the actor’s residence early on Monday morning.
News agency PTI reports two men on a motorcycle threw glass bottles at Bachchan's Juhu residence ‘Prateeksha’ and were heard shouting abuses in the direction of ‘Prateeksha’ main gate.
"At around 1:30 am, some cameramen, who were posted outside the bungalow anticipating trouble, heard the abuses and also saw a bottle being thrown at the direction of bungalow,” a media person was quoted as saying by the agency.
But Mumbai police denied the incident. "Apart from the private security guards posted there, we had also deployed our own men at the spot and no such incident has been observed there during the night,” senior police inspector Deepak Katdare of the nearby Juhu police station, was quoted as saying.
Security was stepped up at Prateeksha on Sunday itself following Raj Thackeray's attack on the superstar for “preferring Uttar Pradesh over Maharashtra” for opening a girls' college.
Raj Thackeray's controversial remarks on north Indian population in the state led to clashes in parts of Maharashtra on Sunday. While the state government ordered a high-level probe into the violence, the Uttar Bharatiya Development Forum - an umbrella organisation of various groups of north Indians in the city - called for a protest closure.
Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil announced late on Sunday that the state's Director General of Police and Mumbai's Police Commissioner will probe the violence.
Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh had lodged an FIR against Thackeray and others in south Mumbai's Azad Maidan police station regarding the incident of protest by MNS activists during his press conference on Saturday.
A couple of theatres staging Bhojpuri films outside the metropolis were attacked and five cars were damaged during Sunday’s violence after which 15 MNS and five SP activists were arrested. How it started
In the last few days, Raj, the estranged nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, has repeatedly ridiculed people from north India settled in Mumbai and also Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who is close to the Samajwadi Party, the leading opposition party in Uttar Pradesh.
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Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav held a rally that was also addressed by other leaders of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA), including Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh and his party's Maharashtra unit chief Abu Asim Azmi.
Yadav pointed out that all Indians have a right to live and work anywhere in the country. "The Samajwadi Party will give a fitting reply to anybody who dares to stop them."
Deputy Commissioner of Police Niket Kaushik told IANS that police had stepped up security measures following widespread rumours that MNS activists would attack north Indians arriving by trains at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus near the Bandra-Kurla Complex.
Last week, on several fora, Raj Thackeray lashed out at the north Indians on different issues, including performing Chhath Puja, a festival especially popular in Bihar. He demanded that they must celebrate only Maharashtrian festivals.
Raj ridiculed Amitabh Bachchan's decision to promote Uttar Pradesh as its brand ambassador earlier. "Since he has lived and flourished in Maharashtra, why can't he promote this state?" he said.
He also questioned the move to construct a girls school in Uttar Pradesh named after Amitabh Bachchan's daughter-in-law and film star Aishwarya Rai, for which the foundation stone was laid last Sunday.
"Are there no girls in Maharashtra? Why can't they construct a school here?" he asked.
While the star has refrained from replying to him, his wife and actor Jaya Bachchan said: "For me, Shri Bal Thackeray is a like a father and (his son) Uddhav is like a son. I don't know any other Thackeray."
When reporters asked her about the school project, Jaya Bachchan said the Bachchans would gladly construct a school in Maharashtra too if Raj was willing to donate land.
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