MUMBAI, 17 July 2007 — No business was transacted yesterday, the opening day of the monsoon session of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and Council, which were both adjourned for the day after paying condolences to the late Indian Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar who passed away recently.
Today, the assembly is likely to see a report on state police chief Pavender Singh Pasricha’s assets. The report of the inquiry committee, headed by the Maharashtra chief secretary, which probed allegations of disproportionate assets against Pasricha will be tabled in the assembly.
The opposition appears to be in an aggressive mood. As is the case always, barring the one exception before the 2007 Budget Session, the Shiv Sena-BJP saffron alliance on Sunday boycotted the customary tea party hosted by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh of the Congress-NCP alliance. And as is the case always, the opposition did so on grounds of not fulfilling any of its own promises for its anti-people policies.
The leader of the opposition Ramdas Kadam was in belligerent mood when he addressed the media on Sunday night. “We did not boycott the tea party the last time because we thought that constructive dialogue would help leave the way for many pro-people decisions to be taken in the session. We were hopeful that the Congress-NCP would deliver on the promises it had made to us. But nothing happened and we want to register our protest over the state government’s continued inaction over many issues,” he said and added that the opposition would bring to the fore issues like the Waqf board controversy, deaths due to floods and rising cases of child malnutrition in both the legislative houses.
Kadam claimed that the Sena and the BJP were together and added that they had sent a joint letter to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announcing their decision to boycott the customary tea party. The letter had been prepared in consultation with Eknath Khadse, the BJP group leader in the legislative assembly, he said.
“The BJP was our friend yesterday, is a friend today and will be our friend even tomorrow,” said Kadam, when his attention was drawn to statements on the alliance made by BJP national General Secretary and former Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde.
Reiterating that the saffron alliance would present a joint opposition to the Congress-NCP government in the house, Kadam said the Sena had supported UPA nominee Pratibha Patil in the presidential poll on the grounds of Marathi pride.
“We did not support her as a Congress candidate, but from a sense of pride stemming from the fact that a Maharashtrian woman will be the first woman president.”
In another development, the Mumbai-based Muslim Intellectual Forum (MIF) has drawn the attention of the government and the security agencies to the renewed Al-Qaeda threat over the subcontinent saying that the US may be using the “phantom outfit” to satisfy its own aggressive pan-global interests. MIF — a forum of writers and thinkers — is also skeptical about true character of fundamentalist violence and Muslim terror believed to be wreaked by the Al-Qaeda as well as by local ideological offshoots like the lesser-known Al-Qaeda Hind.
Speaking to the media, MIF convener Feroze Mithiborewala said: “Jihadist Islamist terrorism and disproportionate violence are simply turning out to be convenient ploys in the hands of the West to shove its diplomatic agenda in a lopsided world where US calls the shots.”
