It seems chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s opinion does not count for much within the Congress in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
It seems chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s opinion does not count for much within the Congress in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Just a day after he said Marathi would be the official language of the state, party’s corporators on Monday supported a notice of motion (suggestion) demanding that the business in the BMC should be transacted in Hindi also, besides Marathi and English.
The motion was moved by Congress leader in the BMC Rajhans Singh during the civic body’s general body meeting. Congress corporators are known to follow the instructions of city unit chief Gurudas Kamat, an adversary of Deshmukh.
On Sunday, addressing the customary press conference on the eve of the budget session of the assembly, Deshmukh had asserted that Marathi would continue to be state’s official language.
When the Sena-led alliance objected to the Singh’s motion, the 70-odd corporators from the Congress staged a walkout.
Singh said mayor Shubha Raul did not even allow him to table the suggestion completely. “Of the 227 corporators in the BMC, nearly one-third are non-Maharashtrians,” Singh said.
His party’s corporators respected the state language, Marathi, Singh said. But the ruling alliance in the BMC was insulting the national language, he alleged.
“Neither the state nor my party has any such policy or opinion,” Deshmukh said referring to Singh’s motion. “That could be his personal opinion at best.”
Singh said he did not want to comment on Deshmukh’s statement.
Requesting anonymity, a party corporator said, “We were always going to support
Singh’s suggestion. Deshmukh’s statement could be his personal opinion.”
Sena, however, did not miss the opportunity to exploit the difference in opinion in the Congress. “If Singh wants Hindi as an official language, then the state’s opinion will be needed,” Sena leader Sunil Prabhu said. “The CM has already clarified his stand on the matter,” he noted.
a_sandeep@dnaindia.net
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