MPCC bid to revoke dindi spirit in its morcha

MUMBAI, Dec 13: A routine pre-Assembly Session morcha is now being turned on its head to be touted as a "historic dindi" and the ...

MUMBAI, Dec 13: A routine pre-Assembly Session morcha is now being turned on its head to be touted as a "historic dindi" and the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee sees this as a "turning point" in its fortunes in the state.

No effort seems to have been spared to evoke the spirit of 1978, when a similar dindi of farmers and other weaker sections of society marched on this central Indian town, the State’s winter capital, in the cold of December, the year Sharad Pawar split the Congress to head a government of the Progressive Democratic Front in Maharashtra.

All outrage was then spilt into the dindi march by Congress stalwarts with former Chief Ministers Vasantrao Naik and Vasantdada Patil riding together in a jeep at the head of the "marching millions". Pawar lost the subsequent elections. Ironically, it is Pawar who will now lead this morcha against the Sena-BJP alliance, though his own dindi is in danger of turning into a rally of just supporters, at the top. Although other Congress strongmen like former Chief Ministers Sudhakarrao Naik, A R Antulay and S B Chavan earlier promised they would be marching alongside Pawar, close to the deadline they seem to have developed various "ailments". Congress workers nevertheless await them with bated breath, so that the message of unity sinks into the masses.

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"Of course, if they are not here, the effect will be dulled somewhat," says MPCC general secretary Avinash Pande, one of the main co-ordinators of this 21st century dindi. "But among the workers there are no divided opinions about the importance this march holds for the party in view of the elections in February. And it has also precipitated unity among the second rank leaders in the state," Pande told The Indian Express.

If that appears like an exaggerated claim, Pande points to the virtual siege of Nagpur currently in progress. Vehicles of all description, are converging on this Orange City threatening to turn it into a huge truck terminus. The Congress claims that by its "modest" estimate by Sunday there will be 2,000 trucks crying for parking space around the environs. "By then there will be two lakh marchers in the city and the numbers of both can only grow by Monday afternoon when the dindi begins," says Pande. Incessant rains in the city are not likely to dampen their spirits, he says. "Our reports from the blocks and talukas tell us that the disillusionment with the Sena-BJP government is great."

Prominent Congress leaders will lead each unit and they will be halted short of the Assembly building at five different points. One of these points is the very spot where the Gowari stampede occurred more than three years ago.