MNS blueprint on Maharashtra goofs up state's name

The party that has been espousing the cause of the Marathi people has managed to bring out an error-riddled document, whose aim is to make voters take pride in the state. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) unveiled its blueprint for bringing about development in Maharashtra on September 25, but, unfortunately, the party seems to have forgotten to get the document checked by a proofreader.

Deepak Pawar, head of Marathi Abhyas Kendra, a centre for promoting Marathi, says political parties have done very little for the language

The blueprint, which is the party's vision on how the state should be developed, comes nine years after the MNS was established, and, surprisingly, has spelling errors in Marathi. In Raj Thackeray's introductory message, a sentence calls the state ‘Mahararashtra'. The document also spells ‘urja' (energy) incorrectly in the Devnagari script, using the wrong alphabet to begin the word and getting the phonetics of the word wrong.

The blueprint gets the name of the state wrong in the introductory message by Raj Thackeray. It also later misspells the word ‘urja' in Marathi

Thackeray had released the blueprint on September 25 in the run-up to the assembly polls, but it had been eclipsed by the break-up of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. A few days later, when people actually got to read the document, the MNS's own workers were appalled at the errors.

"It's surprising that they have got our own state's name wrong. This is unacceptable; our own party name has the word Maharashtra in it! If we talk of Marathi Asmita (pride), aren't we supposed to spell-check to avoid being the laughing stock of the public? It took nine years for this document, and with such silly mistakes, it shows that either the document was not made seriously, or was made in haste," lamented a party worker from the suburbs.

Expert speak
Dr Deepak Pawar, head of Marathi Abhyas Kendra, a centre for propagating the Marathi language, said, "This is proof of the political callousness shown by all parties in the state. If a blueprint is being released, it should've been properly checked. These parties talk of Marathi Asmita, but are doing very little for the language."

"This is a serious issue; every word in every language has its own meaning. Even a small change in words can change the meaning. They should've gotten a proofreader. Delay it by a day or two, but don't go to print with such errors," said a professor from University of Mumbai's Marathi department. Meanwhile, the party also launched a new anthem ‘Aala Aala MaNaSe Aala' (Here Comes MNS).