Marmik taught Marathi people self-respect: Uddhav Thackeray

Uddhav Thackeray. File Pic

Marmik, the cartoon weekly started by his father and Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray in 1960 taught Marathi people "self-respect" and evolved into a movement, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Friday.

Speaking at a virtual celebration of the 61st anniversary of Marmik, Thackeray said both he and the weekly are now in their new "avatar". "Marmik completed 61 years today and I completed 61 years last month...both of us have assumed new avatars," he said, in apparent reference to his becoming chief minister in 2019.

"Maharashtra gained statehood with Mumbai as its capital on May 1, 1960; I was born on July 27, 1960, and Marmik was born on August 13, 1960," Thackeray said. "Marmik is the torch of the Marathi Manoos and it taught us what self-respect means," he said.

The weekly gave birth to the Shiv Sena and later the Saamana, the party's mouthpiece, the chief minister said, adding that Saamana editorials are taken note of not only in Maharashtra and India but "the world-over". His father taught him not to give up when faced with challenges, "and that's what I am doing," said the chief minister.

Marathi people are not cowed down by challenges, he added. From a cartoon weekly, Marmik evolved into a movement which appealed Marathi-speakers to give up salaried jobs and start businesses of their own, Thackeray said.

"Balasaheb led from the front by giving up his job as a cartoonist with the Free Press Journal to start Marmik," he added. Political cartoonist David Low was his father's idol, Thackeray reminisced.

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