Why Marathi politicians cannot thrive in Delhi
Shirish Shinde
Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Sabhamandap: Senior Congressman and former Union Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Sunday (February 23) said that a very few politicians from Maharashtra left their mark on national politics in Delhi after Independence because most MPs and ministers were more concerned about their state politics of cooperative sugar mills and cooperative banks and merely marked their presence during Parliament sessions and went back to their constituencies.
He was speaking in a session moderated by Rajiv Khandekar and Praveen Bardapurkar during the 98th All-India Marathi Literary Convention in Delhi. Chavan said that on the contrary, politicians from North India stayed not far away from Delhi and made the National Capital their permanent base.
When asked about his personal experience why he failed to thrive in spite of having a clean image and a good background, he said that the upbringing of most Marathi politicians was different from those in the North, which was a drawback. He emphasized that the ‘Darbari’ politics of Delhi was not suited for many from Maharashtra.
Replying to a question on the language barrier, the former Union Minister said, “Speaking Hindi or English could have been a barrier in the past but the new generation of Marathi politicians is fluent in both the languages.”
Marathi’s Classical language status
Explaining the genesis of Marathi getting the ‘Classical Language’ status, Chavan said, “It was the then PM Manmohan Singh who launched the idea in 2004. From 2004 to 2010, I was the Minister in the PMO and was aware of the bureaucratic procedure leading to granting of status to an Indian language.
“Hence, when I became the Chief Minister in 2010, I set the ball rolling for Marathi. Later, I established a committee of experts to study the issue. A sub-committee researched the lineage of Marathi and submitted a report in 2014, which I sent to the Centre. However, nothing moved after 2014. Marathi was finally granted the ‘Classical language’ status in 2024 ahead of the elections.”
