Mumbai: After making sexist and threatening remarks against Shobhaa Dea, Congress leader Nitesh Rane, the younger son of state minister Narayan Rane, has now mocked the Gujarati community in Mumbai.
In his posts on micro-blogging site Twitter, Rane said, “Veg skies, Veg hospitals, Veg housing societies.soon Veg Mumbai! Either Gujjus go back to Gujarat or they turn Mumbai into Gujarat…Red alert.”
He was apparently referring to housing societies with mostly Gujarati speaking residents who favored only vegetarian tenants.
In a series of tweets from his handle @NiteshNRane, he targeted “white-collar” Gujaratis in Mumbai, who supported Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and asked them to leave the city, so that “Marathi manus can flourish” and “buy houses where there is no discrimination”.
Gujaratis comprise around 18 per cent of Mumbais over 1.2 crore population.
Later, he tried to clarify the tweet but came off sounding even more prejudiced. “They live and earn their livelihood in this city, but praise Modi and Gujarats development model. Such people should leave Mumbai and move to Gujarat,” he said.
Earlier, he defended his sexist and threatening remarks against Shobhaa De, who rattled politicians in Maharashtra with a satirical tweet wondering about statehood for Mumbai after the creation of Telangana.
Rane had tweeted, “Rather than twitter, Shoba De shud say the same thing on the streets of Mumbai openly after which she will not be left with any “shoba” forever.”
