After Shobhaa De, Nitesh Rane goes after Gujaratis in Mumbai

[caption id=“attachment_1007815” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rane during the conference justified his Twitter tirade. Image courtesy: @ANI_news[/caption] It would be easy for a reader of news to mistake Nitesh Rane for a member of one of the more belligerent regional parties of Maharashtra. While Congress and NCP leaders calmly brushed aside Shobhaa De’s tweet, the son of Congress minister Narayan Rane first targeted the author and then vented about his pet peeve: Gujaratis in Mumbai. Especially those who think Modi is great. In response to Shobhaa De’s tweet, Rane had this to tweet: https://twitter.com/NiteshNRane/status/362564762074222593 Not surprisingly he was widely criticised, even on his own timeline, for it. But even the traditionally chauvinistic parties like the Shiv Sena and MNS were left speechless after Rane took his tirade on Gujaratis from his Twitter timeline, to newspapers and then television channels. In an interview to the Mumbai Mirror in which he justified his stand, called the Gujarati community hypocrites and said their departure would only free up jobs and homes for the Maharashtrians. All I have been saying is that the Gujaratis living in Mumbai should know where they belong and where their loyalties lie. They live and earn their livelihood in this city, but praise Modi and Gujarat’s development model. Such people should leave Mumbai and move to Gujarat. The fact that they continue to live here is proof that they do not believe in Gujarat’s development model. None of them want to go back; this hypocrisy must stop. He continued his tirade today, this time at a press conference where he maintained that all he was trying to do was start a debate. “I am not targeting any community here. If Modi has done so much in Gujarat why don’t his people trust him and go back to Gujarat?” he told CNN-IBN. However, he was quoted as saying by ANI that his criticism only extended to those who ’think that way’ and not all Guajratis. However, a casual glimpse of his Twitter timeline reveals that apart from self praise, the Swabhiman Sanghatna leader has often had not so nice things to say about the community in Mumbai. (Some samples here, here and here) Maharashtra’s home minister RR Patil had his typical placatory response in place. “Nitesh Rane’s statement is not right. We will investigate it if there is anything illegal,” he said. But given Maharashtra’s regional parties have always managed to get away with more inflammatory statements than these, it won’t be surprising if Rane continues in a similar vein for some time to come.