Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar expressed regret over the mistake in reading Marathi!

Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar expressed deep regret in the House on Wednesday (today) over the mistakes made in pronunciation and reading of Marathi language while reading the condolence resolution on Monday. Following sharp criticism on social media and comments by MNS chief Raj Thackeray, Rahul Narvekar clarified that these errors were completely unintentional.

While giving a statement in the Assembly, Rahul Narvekar said that there were some technical and typographical errors in the text of the condolence resolution given to him, which were unknowingly read by him while reading. He said that there were a total of 12 condolence proposals and the printout given to him had blurry printing, very small font size and also had some technical flaws.

He said, “I am proud of the Marathi language and I respect it. In the last four years, as Speaker of the Assembly, I have given many speeches in Marathi and have successfully conducted the proceedings of the House. No person, especially the Speaker of the Assembly, can even imagine disrespecting a personality like the great singer Asha Tai Bhosle. What happened was a completely unintentional mistake. However, if the sentiments of the citizens of the state or the members of the House have been hurt, I express my sincere regret for it.”

The controversy started on Monday when Narvekar was reading condolence resolutions to pay tribute to late playback singer Asha Bhosle and political thinker Deendayal Upadhyay. During this time, he made many pronunciation and factual mistakes while reading Marathi text. The most talked about thing was when he mistakenly read the name of Asha Bhosle’s father and great musician Dinanath Mangeshkar as “Deendayal Mangeshkar”.

After this incident, he faced heavy criticism on social media. MNS chief Raj Thackeray also launched a scathing attack and said that such plight of the language on such a serious occasion is unfortunate. He sarcastically remarked that it seemed as if someone had previously used the paper given to the Speaker to eat Bhel.

The opposition raised this issue as soon as the assembly proceedings began on Wednesday. Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Ajay Choudhary, demanding responsibility to be fixed in this matter, said that action should be taken against those who provided wrong and erroneous text to the Speaker, as this has affected the dignity of the Assembly and the reputation of the Speaker.