The Shiv Sena claims allegiance to the Samyukta Maharashtra movement. But some of its members do not mind erasing memories firmly associated with the movement.
The Shiv Sena claims allegiance to the Samyukta Maharashtra movement. But some of its members do not mind erasing memories firmly associated with the movement, which eventually ensured the creation of a separate Marathi-speaking state from the bilingual state of Bombay.
Along with Shivaji Park in Dadar and Kamgaar Maidan in Parel, the Gandhi Maidan in Kurla was at the centre of the movement in the late 1950s. A number of ‘sabhas’ presided over by the movement’s leaders, including Acharya Prahlad Keshav Atre, SM Joshi, Prabhodankar Thackeray (father of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray), Senapati Bapat, among others were staged at this playground. As socialist Comrade Gopal Dukhande recollected, “The ground was at the heart of the rebellion. As there were two mills in the vicinity, the working class would participate in heavy numbers in these sabhas.”
But now the local Shiv Sena leadership wants the same ground to be allotted to ‘illegal’ hawkers evicted by the BMC. Sena’s vibhag pramukh Bhau Korgaonkar has requested the markets and garden committee, headed by another Shiv Sainik and corporator Yeshwant Jadhav, to allot space to hawkers at the ground.
Some 100-odd hawkers previously peddled their wares outside the Laxmanrao Yadav municipal market at Kurla. The local municipal ward office evicted them from the place a few months ago.
Claiming they had no other means of earning, Korgaonkar requested that these hawkers be allotted space at the ground. He said, “Open space is available at the Gandhi Maidan. We have requested for allotment of space there.” Even as Jadhav clarified that nothing would be done in violation of court orders, Korgaonkar’s suggestion has irked local citizens and senior citizens from the region.
In fact, Sushila Patil, a 99-year-old woman, who had actively participated in Samyukta Maharashtra movement and also the independence struggle, along with other senior citizens, has warned of going on fast unto death if the space was “misused”. “I won’t allow it be used for any other purpose,” she said.
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