In an exclusive interview with India Today, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan condemned the violence over Marathi language in Maharashtra.
00:00In fact, over the last couple of weeks, Maharashtra is seeing this political violence, in some cases, over Hindi imposition.
00:06Remember the Marathi Manu's politics taking center stage over the weekend, the Thakre cousins had shared a stage.
00:12And all of this is leading to a lot of flux in Maharashtra politics, a possible Thakre reunion for the crucial Mumbai municipal election later this year,
00:20adding to a twist within the equation within the Maharashtra Vikas Agadi.
00:24Will the Congress, for example, stay within this alliance or will it contest alone?
00:29Will the Maharashtra Vikas Agadi alliance last amidst this fluctuating climate in Maharashtra?
00:36Listen in to Prithviraj Sawant.
00:44And as Maharashtra politics in a way remains in a state of flux and dare I say even violence around the corner,
00:52I am joined by Maharashtra's former Chief Minister Prithviraj Sawant.
00:57Mr. Sawant, we are seeing Maharashtra politics once again in a state of flux.
01:02The Thakre is seemingly coming together, a renewal of the rather violent agitation for Marathi and against Hindi and North Indians.
01:13Where does the Congress stand?
01:14Is the Congress caught in a rock and a, between a rock and a hard place?
01:17An alliance with Uddhav Thakre, but troubled in a way by the fact that he is joining hand with Raj Thakre now.
01:25Well, I don't think there should be any problem.
01:29See, people of Maharashtra rose like a man to oppose imposition of Hindi from class one.
01:36I mean, some people went into an aggressive agitation, some people did not.
01:43But it was a common theme across the state that don't burden young children from class one with three languages.
01:52I mean, you could have a different view about it.
01:53Nobody's against Hindi, but don't start it from class one and burden.
01:58We don't have enough teachers, enough teaching materials.
02:01But do you support the violence, sir?
02:03While you are opposed to the Hindi imposition across the board, do you support the violence that has followed?
02:10Absolutely not.
02:12You see, the point is, when there was a statewide view that you should not impose Hindi,
02:20the state government, the chief minister, accepted the demand and withdrew the government resolution.
02:29So, it was, in a way, whatever we wanted was obtained.
02:33Now, if some people wanted to celebrate victory or wanted to spread a message that it was only because of their violent agitation this happened,
02:42I mean, so be it.
02:43Now, let us not forget that our Mahavikas Aghadi alliance is with Mr. Uddhav Thakre of Shiv Sena and Mr. Sharathaur of NCP.
02:52Now, if they want to get into a sub-alliance, that's their issue.
02:56Except that you cannot have a partner in the sub-alliance which completely at cross-purpose is in the Congress Party's ideology.
03:04Let me get that clear.
03:06Are you clear that Raj Thakre's politics is at cross-purpose is with what the Congress stands for?
03:12Well, we don't accept any violence, linguistic violence or religious violence, any violence of any kind.
03:19I think it is failure of the state government to control these people.
03:22And therefore, there are doubts whether somebody has been propped up to create issues about just before the Bombay Municipal Corporation elections.
03:30I think let them make this view clear.
03:32We are absolutely against any violence based on linguistic or religious basis, whether it is Hindu-Muslim matter or it is what you eat, what you wear, or what you speak.
03:44Of course, we'll...
03:45But we are hearing that the Congress will therefore probably go it alone in the civic polls.
03:51Is that more and more likely that you will not be part of any wider alliance?
03:55And is the Congress, in a way, getting isolated because of this kind of regional politics that has now returned and revived?
04:02What does the Congress stand for?
04:04Rajeeb, don't mix up issues.
04:06You see, we have had a state-level alliance with NCP from 1999.
04:10Now, the policy had been that for Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha election, we went to a pre-Poll alliance.
04:17And then it required...
04:19But for local bodies, we normally left it to the local units, district units, the Mumbai unit or Pune unit and the Arapur unit.
04:28If they said that we want to go into an alliance with like-minded parties or components of the Mahavikas Akhari or India, Ganbandhan, so be it.
04:36But most of the people... We had a recent meeting in Mumbai on 30th of June.
04:41And Mumbai leaders expressed their views.
04:44I mean, it was generally saying that, look, we don't benefit from this alliance with Shiv Sena.
04:49And all that was a view expressed by some of them.
04:51That is not the party decision yet.
04:53What is your view?
04:55What is your view?
04:56Should you go it alone and test your strength?
04:58Because there are many who believe that Congress, without an alliance, will struggle in Mumbai and several municipalities.
05:04You need all these other parties to come together.
05:07What is your view?
05:09I think we entirely let it be decided by the local units, a party, the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee or Pune unit or Arapur unit or every single unit.
05:19What's your view?
05:20Our last experience has been, although we had gone into a state-level alliance with Vithansaba and Lok Sabha, we did not go for alliances with the local bodies.
05:31And that was left to the local units.
05:32And I think this time also, similar thing will happen.
05:35Because ultimately, if you want to retain your symbol, retain your flag, then you have to fight the entire district or entire state, your symbol.
05:44But there is a sense, Mr. Savan, that with the Thakres possibly coming together, with Sharad Pawar also possibly waiting and watching carefully, where does the Congress go?
05:56Does the Congress, in a way, now find itself, as I said earlier, a little bit isolated in this fluctuating politics of Maharashtra, a state that you once dominated, you're not able to really handle what's going on around you all?
06:13Rajdeep, let us not forget the Lok Sabha election result, 2024 Lok Sabha election result.
06:20Congress, the same Congress party which you're talking to people today, had decisively won the Lok Sabha election, getting highest number of seats for our party, best strike rate.
06:32Now, that could not be repeated in Vidhan Sabha because there are many factors.
06:36Rajdeep Gandhi had raised some issues about election issues, uncomfortable feeling about what happened within five months.
06:44But that's a separate issue altogether.
06:46So, let's not forget that just in Lok Sabha election 2024, Congress party bested everybody else.
06:53We had the highest number of MPs.
06:55Sir, I take that, but between Marathi chauvinism on one side and Hindutva on the other, where is the Congress?
07:03No, I think we are against any kind of chauvinism or any kind of violence to prove your point.
07:11I mean, we don't accept beating up people who do not speak Marathi.
07:15Of course, we'll request them with folded hands and if you have made Maharashtra your home, then you should learn Marathi.
07:22You should communicate in Marathi, but not, you know, we cannot force anybody or cannot beat people up.
07:29Because, you know, there's other side to it.
07:31There are a lot of Marathi people in other states also.
07:33And as one of the BJP MPs are threatened, that we'll do a tit for tat for Marathi people who are working in other states.
07:40But this is ridiculous, this is not.
07:42But ultimately, you see, this is what BJP has shown.
07:46The religious violence is happening in UP, the bulldozer justice, the lynching, mob lynching about who's eating what and all that thing.
07:55But this is the culture.
07:56BJP has got this culture.
07:58And I think we don't support that at all.
08:00coming out against the politics of violence, let's hope more Maharashtra politicians also accept that there must be a red line drawn.
