The Shiv Sena had a reputation for decades of being a party that has not hesitated to use brawn to get its message across.
The party has adopted a decidedly more mellow image in the years since Uddhav Thackeray took over as its chief. But the Shiv Sena still continues to maintain a hard line on emotive issues such as Pakistan.
This hard line was on display when Nitin Nandgaonkar, a Shiv Sena leader, went to an outlet of Karachi Sweets in the Bandra West area of Mumbai and demanded the owner change its name to "something in Marathi". Nandgaonkar shared a video of the incident on his Facebook account on Wednesday and the video started going viral.
In the video, the owner of Karachi Sweets is heard telling Nandgaonkar that his family had migrated from Karachi. Nandgaonkar responds, "It does not matter whether you are Hindu or Muslim. In Mumbai, you cannot use the word 'Karachi'... The word 'Karachi' causes us difficulty," and refers to the sacrifices of Indian Army soldiers and Pakistan being a sponsor of terrorism.
"I hate the name Karachi because it is the place of terrorists… There should be no business with the word Karachi," Nandgaonkar declares.
Nandgaonkar told the shop owner to change the registered name of Karachi Sweets. Nandgaonkar even suggests to the owner to rename Karachi Sweets after one of his forefathers, who had migrated from Karachi during Partition.
Nandgaonkar told the shop owner he would return in 15 days and offered help to him with respect to formalities at the BMC to change the establishment's name.
On Thursday, ANI reported the Karachi Sweets outlet in Bandra West had covered the word 'Karachi' with newspapers.
In 2009, a Karachi Sweets outlet in the Mulund area of Mumbai changed its name after receiving a deadline from the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. The MNS had made the demand in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Nandgaonkar, who was previously in the MNS, is no stranger to controversy. He was arrested in 2018 with 19 others for vandalising a taxi in Kurla. In February this year, Nandgaonkar and another Shiv Sena activist were arrested for attacking a man accused of molesting several women near the Matunga Police Station.
