Maharashtra: History dominating politics, politicians become politicians

There is an old relationship between color and politics. Politicians have often been seen playing color or changing color. Holi break is going on at this time in the budget session of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, and all the MLAs have gone to celebrate Holi in their respective homes. Prior to this break, that is, for the last one and a half weeks, the action of the assembly and history was seen to be a big tussle in politics and history. Politicians were seen speaking like historians, and the names of historical personalities in the House were echoed. The result of this adulteration of history in politics was that the serious issues that were expected to be discussed in the House were winded up.

A statement of Abu Azmi’s statement

At the beginning of the session, a statement of Samajwadi Party’s Maharashtra chief and MLA Abu Azmi stood up. Talking to a news agency, Azmi praised the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and said that he was a good administrator and did not discriminate between Hindu-Muslim. There was an uproar in the Legislative Assembly on his statement and there was a demand to suspend him. Those who made such demands not only included members of the ruling side, but also opposed him, Shiv Sena (Ubatha), a constituent of the opposition coalition Mahavikas Aghadi. Azmi was suspended for the entire session, and two FIRs were also lodged against him, one in Mumbai and the other in Thane.

Discussion of Nitesh Rane’s statement

On Wednesday, the assembly once again had to forget the present and return to history. This time the statement of Port Minister Nitesh Rane in Mahayuti government became the reason for this. Rane, who is often in the discussion due to inflammatory and controversial statements, surprised everyone during a speech that Chhatrapati was not a Muslim in Shivaji Maharaj’s army. He also said that the battle of Shivaji and Aurangzeb was the battle of Hindu vs. Islam. Many people were surprised by this “revelation” of Rane. The matter woke up in Vidhan Bhavan, and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had to intervene. Ajit Pawar appealed to the ruling party and the opposition not to make inflammatory statements and clarified that there were Muslims in Shivaji Maharaj’s army, and he did not discriminate on the basis of religion or caste. According to Pawar, the gunpowder of Shivaji Maharaj’s army was responsible for a Muslim person.

Blow-up

Apart from the statements of Azmi and Rane, history dominated this time in the Vidhan Sabha session. A journalist from Nagpur, Prashant Koratkar, and a Marathi actor, Rahul Solapurkar, also made some objectionable statements about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. After this, the opposition created a ruckus in the Legislative Council and demanded immediate arrest of both. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis retaliated on this and reminded NCP (SP) MLA Jeetendra Awhad of the alleged derogatory statement made towards Chhatrapati Shivaji. At the same time, he also asked the opposition whether he would condemn the things written about Shivaji Maharaj in Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s book Discovery of India.

Uproar over historical characters

The uproar over historical characters in Vidhan Bhavan was in the benefit of the government. This saved the government to surround many serious issues. A minister of the government, Dhananjay Munde, had to resign in the murder of a sarpanch in Beed, but the issue of Aurangzeb caught more. The opposition could not ask the government properly to ask the government as to why it was so long to resign from Munde. Mahayuti in her election manifesto had promised to increase women from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,100 every month under the ‘Ladki Bahn Scheme’, but no such announcement was made in the budget. The issue “lost in history,” and in the name of surrounding the government, a handful of opposition MLAs sat on the stairs of Vidhan Bhavan for only fifteen minutes, shouted slogans, photographed, gave a byte on TV, and kept on. It is expected that when the Legislative Assembly starts again after Holi, the color of history will have come out of politics.