‘I am a vocal, visible target right now’

A shop owner changes the signboard of his shop. File pic

Even as we have been battered, like several other industries during the pandemic, the latest Omicron surge has punctured any hopes of revival right now. To add to these difficult times, the Maharashtra government has decided on ‘visible and prominent' Marathi signboards on all shops, which means signboards not in small but big letters. What this means is that the font (size) of lettering in Marathi should be very prominent, as big if not bigger than the signboards in another language.

No enemy

As the Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association president (FRTWA) on behalf of shopkeepers of Maharashtra, I have objected to the Cabinet decision on this Marathi signboard matter.

Now, because I am very vocal and extremely visible, I am being portrayed as some kind of ‘enemy' of the Maharashtrian people and have become a target. I have always maintained the rule of law prevailing in the state. In fact, besides south Mumbai, I have a shop in Dadar. My customers are 80 per cent Maharashtrian. When a customer walks in, he does not see whether the signboard is in Marathi or English, he just walks in to buy what he wants. All of us, members of the federation, respect the Marathi signboard and as per the current rule it can be of any font size. We, the federation members, never had any objection about this rule for decades, which says the signboard in Marathi can be of any font size and will never do so in future. We live in Maharashtra and we abide by the law of the land. If any establishments flout this rule, action must be taken against them. However, the problem is about now having a ‘prominent and bigger font size' Marathi signboard on shop fronts.

The history

Our association had objected in 2001 when the government then had brought in new notification of the Marathi font size being bigger than that of other languages on the shop signboard. The Honourable Bombay High Court had given a stay on the Marathi signboard font size issue on the ground of freedom of expression. Even in 2008/2009, the MNS had targeted me personally. They barged in the meeting being held in my shop Roopam which has a hall and broke the shop windows. This shop is at Crawford Market, and all this was happening in front of the police commissioner's office. They started a hate campaign against me and portrayed me as the ‘Enemy of Marathi' on black boards on the streets. Once my personal revolver was stolen and one bullet was fired and an empty shell was left on my car seat, which was a threat of some kind from an anti-social element. The HC in 2008/2009 had asked the state to give me police protection.

Political games

I am also witnessing a game of one-upmanship by certain political parties claiming that they are in the vanguard of the Marathi signboard matter. The traders are feeling the squeeze as parties are fighting for brownie points with an eye, of course, on the BMC election in February. I respect the Thackeray family and Aadityaji as a dear friend, being an MLA of the Worli constituency where I reside.

Personally, I can only hope that the Mumbai police will ensure full protection to me. From a larger perspective, it is time shops are stopped from becoming soft targets for political parties to show their ‘muscle power'. This refers to stone throwing during bandhs, or at times like these where there are threats on social media platforms telling owners they need to decide which is more expensive, broken shop fronts and windows or changing the signboards.

As told to Hemal Ashar

Viren Shah, president of Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association