Bombay: CM, Congress corporators hit a language barrier

[Harold Schiffman]

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:12:00 AM


CM, Congress corporators hit a language barrier

Sandeep Ashar


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 at dnaindia.net



http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1155433
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