From correspondents in Maharashtra, India, 10:30 PM IST
In continuing ethnic turmoil in western Maharashtra, Shiv Sena workers Monday blackened Telugu and Tamil nameplates of some restaurants and shops in Shirdi.
In Nashik district's Ambed town, about 350 km from the state capital Mumbai, hundreds of north Indian employees of small scale industries and business establishments have fled, allegedly on being threatened by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers.
While the irate Shiv Sena workers in Shirdi told media-persons after the rampage that they would not tolerate any non-Marathi nameplates in Maharashtra, MNS denied any role in the developments in Ambed, saying they do not act behind the scene.
Shiv Sena's executive president Uddhav Thackeray had criticized the utterances of MNS president and his estranged cousin Raj Thackeray against superstar Amitabh Bachchan and north Indians in Mumbai last week.
The party which espouses Marathi pride and claims to be the sole protector of interests of 'Marathi manoos' (Marathi man) had, in an editorial comment in its mouthpiece Saamna, dubbed MNS workers' attacks on north Indians as hooliganism of a misdirected bunch of youth.
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If there's a civil war in India, Bal Thackeray and his travelling circus, called the Shiv Sena, will be solely responsible for it.
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