Sena leader sets deadline for sweet shop to remove 'Karachi' from name

The owner of a sweet shop, ‘Karachi Sweets’, in Mumbai’s Bandra West was forced to cover his shop sign with newspapers after Shiv Sena leader Nitin Nandgaokar wanted ‘Karachi’ dropped from the name.

A video of the exchange between the sweet shop owner and Nandgaokar was caught on camera. Nandgaonkar shared the video on his Facebook account on Wednesday (November 18), which went viral.

He is heard asking the owner to change the word ‘Karachi’ to “something in Marathi”. “You have to do it, we’re giving you time. Change ‘Karachi’ to something in Marathi,” Nandgaokar is heard saying.

In the video, the owner is heard telling Nandgaonkar that his family had migrated from Karachi. “It does not matter whether you are Hindu or Muslim. In Mumbai, you cannot use the word ‘Karachi’… The word ‘Karachi’ causes us difficulty,” Nandgaonkar replied. He called Pakistan a sponsorer of terrorism and said the Indian Army soldiers had made many sacrifices fighting terrorists.

“I hate the name Karachi because it is the place of terrorists… There should be no business with the word Karachi,” he said. He even offered help to the owner with getting all the formalities done with the BMC to change the name of the shop.

Also read: What’s in a name: Post-Pulwama, bakery yes, but ‘Karachi’ no 

In 2009, in the wake of the Mumbai terror attack in 2008, a ‘Karachi Sweets’ outlet in Mulund, Mumbai, had to change its sign board after  the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena led by Raj Thackeray set it a deadline to change the name.

Also read: Eat sweets, sleep, repeat: Story behind Bengal’s sugar rush amid COVID-19 

In a similar case, last year, ‘Karachi Bakery’ in Indiranagar, Bengaluru, was targeted by miscreants who objected to the name. A group of about 20 men barged into the bakery and raised slogans against the name, insisting the establishment change it.