It’s Marathi for your kids, English for mine

Across the Sena’s top echelons, The Indian Express found children were attending English-medium schools. That fact is known to the rank and file. The result is a simmering resentment in a party that demands unquestioning obedience from its underbelly. And unsurpisingly, the diktat has cut little ice.

‘‘They send their children to English-medium schools, while our children have to be the torch bearers of Marathi culture. Why should our children be deprived of opportunities?’’ asks an angry Prashant Surve from Malad, a Sena activist since 1996.

The Sena has roped in eminent personalities like scientist Vasant Gowarikar, theatre personality Bharat Dabholkar and others to argue the merits of education in the mother tongue (read Marathi). Dabholkar admits he understands the resentment. ‘‘In the competitive world, those from Marathi-medium schools will lag behind, because when spoken English is poor, confidence level is low,’’ he says. ‘‘They don’t think they are as good as the others.’’

To promote their Amchi Marathi campaign, the party has also tied up with prominent Marathi schools — Balmohan Vidya Mandir, Parle Tilak Vidyalaya and A.B. Goregaonkar — to create awareness among Maharashtrians to send their children to Marathi-medium schools.

Seven sub-panels, comprising academicians and campus counsellors, will be set up to equip students in Marathi-medium schools with skills to keep pace with English.

But that’s not good enough for the party’s leaders. ‘‘My wife is a South Indian. So the natural choice of school was an English-medium one,’’ says sitting MP Mohan Rawle. ‘‘I feel that this education has made my children bolder and confident,’’ he says.

Sena leader Narayan Rane too defends his decision. ‘‘I wanted them to have the opportunities I did not get,’’ he says.