Karachi Sweets row: After Shiv Sena leader demands shop to cover name, Sanjay Raut says ‘not our official stand’

Mumbai: Video of Shiv Sena leader Nitin Nandgaokar goes viral, where he’s allegedly asking Karachi Sweets shop owner in Bandra West to change the name ‘Karachi’.

“You have to do it, we’re giving you time. Change ‘Karachi’ to something in Marathi,” says Nitin Nandgaokar in video. pic.twitter.com/PfmM4B65ac

— ANI (@ANI) November 19, 2020

Following the incident, the shop covered its name with a newspaper.

(Express photo: Ganesh Shirsekar)

Subsequently, Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Raut, clarified that the demand for changing the shop’s name is not the party’s official stance. Raut took to Twitter and said, “Karachi bakery and karachi sweets have been in mumbai since last 60 years. They have nothing to do with Pakistan. It makes no sense to ask for changing their names now.Demand for changing their name is not shivsena’s official stance.”

<p “width=420″ lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&gt;Karachi bakery and karachi sweets have been in mumbai since last 60 years. They have nothing to do with Pakistan . It makes no sense to ask for changing their names now.Demand for changing their name is not shivsena’s official stance.— Sanjay Raut (@rautsanjay61) November 19, 2020

Also read: Our 2009 article that looks at the history of Karachi Sweets and other similarly named establishments

In a similar incident last year in Bengaluru, some men had allegedly barged into a Karachi Bakery, a six-decade-old bakery chain, outlet in Indiranagar and demanded that the management remove the word ‘Karachi’ from its name following the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF jawans. Eventually, nine men were arrested for threatening the outlet’s staff, the Deccan Herald had reported.

(Express photo: Ganesh Shirsekar)

A week after the Indiranagar incident, another Karachi Bakery’s outlet manager in Bengaluru claimed he received a call from someone who threatened to “blast the store” if the word Karachi wasn’t removed from signboard, NDTV reported.

Read | From our archives: Bullied by MNS, sweets shop drops Karachi name

Karachi is the largest city of Pakistan and the capital of Pakistani province of Sindh.