“Ek quantity Maharashtrian meals. It made our hearts completely satisfied. Sir, the bhaji is ek quantity. The meals has been cooked with love,” says a lady in Marathi, as she had dinner beneath the open sky with dozens of individuals round her. Within the viral video, behind her stood a person, who stated, “That is a very powerful factor.” The person is Devesh Chandra Thakur, the JD(U)’s Lok Sabha MP representing the Sitamarhi seat in northern Bihar.
The girl was amongst greater than 100 pilgrims from Maharashtra, who had crossed into northern Bihar after escaping the catastrophe in Nepal. The district administration hosted them, organized meals and shelter and ready to send them safely onwards to Nagpur. And the person guaranteeing that was Sitamarhi MP Devesh Chandra Thakur. In one other video that went extra viral than the earlier one, Thakur was seen talking to Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis in fluent Marathi. “Ho saheb! There is not any downside. They’re all with us, protected,” the 73-year-old MP advised Fadnavis, whereas attempting to rearrange and increase an extra coach to the Patna-Naned Specific for the pilgrims.
The movies of Sitamarhi MP Thakur drew a variety of reactions on social media. Some have been amazed. Others expressed admiration, saying this was the linguistic concord India wanted. Many others famous the irony of a Bihari politician talking Marathi whilst migrants from the japanese state face hostility and pressure to make use of the native language in Maharashtra. Some additionally identified that Thakur had learnt Marathi as a result of he had lived and studied in Maharashtra.
And that final commentary explains precisely how Sitamarhi MP Devesh Chandra Thakur was in a position to break into Marathi whereas talking to pilgrims coming back from Nepal and to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the cellphone.
The catastrophic flash floods that struck Nepal on August 26 close to the Nepal-Tibet border, sending ice, rock, mud and water by means of the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli river system. Days later, a gaggle of 106 pilgrims from Maharashtra crossed into Bihar through Sitamarhi, the place the district administration supplied meals, shelter and medical care earlier than sending them to Nagpur through Patna.
The catastrophe in Nepal additionally raised water ranges in a number of rivers flowing into Bihar, together with the Gandak, Bagmati, Kamla Balan and Kosi. Bihar consequently positioned susceptible northern districts on alert, though the NDRF reported no main adversarial impression from the Nepal floods.
Now, again to the story of Sitamarhi MP Devesh Chandra Thakur and the way the 73-year-old grew to become fluent in Marathi. It was not a results of a crash course taken for an event.
BJP Kisan Morcha nationwide IT and social media co-incharge Rahul Jha wrote on X, “Devesh Chandra Thakur Ji has had a well-established enterprise in Maharashtra for years, and, figuring out him personally, I can say that he has command of Marathi.”
Born in Sitamarhi, Thakur studied at Sainik College in Nashik earlier than shifting to Pune. He accomplished his BA Honours at Pune’s Fergusson Faculty and obtained his regulation diploma from ILS Legislation Faculty, in accordance with his profile on the Sansad web site.
Thakur entered scholar politics in Pune and contested a college students’ union election on the then College of Pune, now Savitribai Phule Pune College.
In accordance with his profile on the Sitamarhi district administration web site, Thakur was a member of the Maharashtra State Youth Congress Committee from 1970 to 1980. He subsequently served on the Maharashtra State Congress Committee between 1980 and 1985.
He later grew to become a vice-president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress and labored carefully with Congress veterans Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushilkumar Shinde, each of whom went on to function Maharashtra chief ministers, in accordance with a 2024 report in The Occasions of India (TOI).
The TOI report described Thakur as somebody raised in Pune who retained robust social and political hyperlinks with Maharashtra even after shifting his political base to Bihar. “Individuals of Bihar assume Thakur is a Maharashtrian, whereas individuals of Mumbai and Pune really feel he’s ‘‘pakka Bihari‘,” the report famous.
That explains Thakur’s fluency and the convenience with which he switched to Marathi whereas talking to CM Fadnavis.
Earlier than getting into the Lok Sabha in 2025 for the primary time, Thakur served as a member of the Bihar Legislative Council beginning in 2002. He additionally served because the chairman of the Council from August 2022 till his election to Lok Sabha in June 2024.
So, the movies of Thakur gained resonance on social media as language has been a contentious political concern in Maharashtra. That too, for individuals from Bihar. A latest directive requiring autorickshaw and taxi drivers in Mumbai to speak Marathi triggered a row, prompting the Maharashtra authorities to offer them a 12 months to be taught the language. In opposition to that backdrop, the sight of a Bihar MP talking fluent Marathi inevitably drew consideration.
However politics apart, the Maharashtra pilgrims wanted meals, shelter, medical help and a protected journey house, they usually obtained all of that in Bihar. Of their second of misery, they heard the language of house. Marathi grew to become a language of reassurance. There, Marathi was not imposed nor resisted. It was spoken with love.
– Ends
