Caption : File Pic of Pro-Vidarbha leaders root for statehood in Aug 2013
Nagpur: In this tussle between the young politician from Nagpur who was fanatic about creation of Vidarbha and the C.M. of Maharashtra, it is clearly the C.M. who is winning. In fact the advocate for Vidarbha who had declared “I would rather be C.M. of Vidarbha than of Maharashtra” has almost disappeared.
If any doubts remained in anyone’s minds, they were quelled when Fadnavis declared on the floor of the House today that there was no proposal for the creation of Vidarbha before his government.
This monsoon session of the Vidhan Sabha in Mumbai has witnessed stormy weather inside to match the torrential rains outside. Since two days, the tsunami called Vidarbha suddenly struck – as tsunamis have a habit of striking suddenly without much warning.
It was met with an equally ferocious opposition from BJP’s partner in government the Shiv Sena and leaders of opposition too.
After the pandemonium witnessed over the issue again today, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis assured the house that there is no proposal of a separate statehood of Vidarbha.
“The Nagpur pact in 1953 spoke about a separate state of Vidarbha. However the BJP and Shiv Sena have their own and clear views about Vidarbha. Opposition is an opportunist and is trying to politicize the issue…the issue of separate Vidarbha is not a state issue and there is no such proposal before the state in that regards.”
This statement will come as a shock to all Vidarbha proponents. What does the CM mean by saying ‘the issue of separate Vidarbha is NOT A STATE ISSUE??’
Then whose issue is it? Just of the hapless people of Vidarbha who have been suffering from step motherly treatment meted out to it ever since it joined Maharashtra and had Nagpur getting the dubious distinction as a ‘second capital’ after losing the advantage it had had as capital of the large state of Madhya Pradesh or Central Provinces?
Remember, the British had also given Nagpur and Vidarbha great importance in their administrative planning and thus Nagpur already had a Reserve Bank and High Court. In fact the Nagpur High Court is in many ways bigger and much more impressive than the Bombay High court!
In fact, there is some proof to show that they had even envisaged Nagpur as the capital of the country with Chikhaldara being made the ‘summer capital’. They were so in love with Chikhaldara that they developed it with much care and planted so many conifers and other trees native to Europe in its mountains that looking at them they could imagine they were among the dales and hills and forests of ‘Home’. Not thousands of miles away in hostile Asia!
They made Amraoti the capital of the international Cotton trade – daily the world wide price of cotton was declared from Amraoti, not Manchester or Georgia ( the US state which thrived on cotton plantations.)
This was our Rulers’ views on Vidarbha – we would definitely like to know from the ex-Mayor of Nagpur and our Chief Minister what he means when he says ” the BJP and Shiv Sena have their own views on Vidarbha?” These may be CLEAR to him but we are quite confused!
The issue by the way was also raised in the Upper House of the Maharashtra Legislature. Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde alleged that the BJP is trying to break the state of Maharashtra into pieces for their political benefit. Shiv Sena Leader Neelam Gorhe also demanded that the government should bring in a resolution of united Maharashtra in the house. The Council too was adjourned for the day after uproar over the issue.
Thus it is clear that our opponents are united and working in tandem to oppose creation of Vidarbha tooth and nail.
It is time to show how serious Vidarbhites are about Vidarbha!
