Opinion Sixty years of neglect

Mumbai’s exploitation at the hands of the Congress dates back to the 1950s. Ignoring the Marathi linguistic movement,the Congress imposed Morarji Desai on Mumbai. The bureaucratic-minded politician that he was,Desai ordered the state police to fire on Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti protestors,resulting in 105 deaths. The incident led to public outrage,which shook the Central government. C.D. Deshmukh,finance minister in the Jawaharlal Nehru cabinet,had already resigned accusing the Congress leadership of an “anti-Marathi” bias. One of Mumbai’s brightest sons,who had won many laurels including a distinction in the ICS exam,Deshmukh was the first Indian to have been appointed RBI governor,in 1943. His challenge to Nehru stoked an anti-Congress fire which it is still finding difficult to douse.

The Congress has never had a leader of any stature in Mumbai,and the party depended solely on fly-by-night functionaries such as S.K. Patil — who made matters worse for the party by demanding that Mumbai be turned into an autonomous state. Patil paid a heavy price after Maharashtra was born in 1960. He lost to a then-rookie named George Fernandes in the 1967 Lok Sabha elections.

The arrangement was like this: the Congress’s Mumbai face would be north Indian or Gujarati,while the state chief minister would be Marathi. So the state had chief ministers like Yashwantrao Chavan,Vasantrao Naik,Vasantdada Patil,Sharad Pawar and many others,all Maharashtrians; and Mumbai was led by leaders like Bhanushankar Yagnik,Rajni Patel,Murli Deora — all with roots in Rajasthan or Gujarat. The chief ministers were troubled by the Mumbai Congress chiefs,who were used by the party’s high command as a balancing factor against the Marathas ruling the state.

This created a fertile ground for regional chauvinism,resulting in the birth of the Shiv Sena. Initially the Shiv Sena was nothing but the ruling Congress’s B-team; it even earned the name “Vasant Sena”,which implied it was close to Vasantrao Naik,then Maharashtra CM. Those days,Congress chief ministers were closer to the Shiv Sena than to the party’s Mumbai chiefs. Even Murli Deora could become Mumbai mayor only when the Sena supported him. Deora was the Mumbai Congress chief for well over 22 years. Always the high command’s man,the durable Deora was a perfect liaison between Mumbai’s wealthy,or soon-to-be- wealthy,and the party’s central leadership.

The tradition of imposing rootless leaders continues even now. The Mumbai Congress at present is led by Kripashankar Singh,being probed in the Madhu Koda scam. Kripa has been rewarded more for mastering the art of high-command management than for anything else.

The arrangement of leaving the BMC to the Sena in return for its tacit support in the rest of the state had damaged the Congress badly. Having realised the importance of running Mumbai,the Congress government created a separate body,the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority,MMRDA,to manage the affairs of the city. The Congress was compelled to do this as it failed to wrest the BMC back from the Shiv Sena,which had by then been joined by the BJP,which had a predominantly Gujarati face. This combination has ruled Mumbai for the past two decades. The Sena was successful more in painting the Congress as anti-Mumbai,than in selling its sons-of-the-soil agenda. Now,with the the Raj Thackeray-led MNS attempting to snatch the Sena’s base,comes the Congress’s best chance to make its presence felt in Mumbai.

Chief Minister Chavan’s call to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should be seen in this light. Singh had sounded his Shanghai-Mumbai bugle in October 2004,in a build-up to the state elections. “I share this aspiration to transform Mumbai in the next five years in such a manner that people would forget about Shanghai and Mumbai will become a talking point,” Singh had then said.

Since then,Mumbai’s journey has only gone from bad to worse. The Congress leadership has remained with the likes of Kripa,who want to protect the large stretches of illegal slums that are coming in the way of Singh’s Shanghai dream. Since then,Mumbai has faced natural disasters — the 2005 July deluge,when the city was pounded by 950 mm of rain in nine hours — along with man-made ones like 26/11 and half a dozen terror strikes. Since then,this is the first opportunity for Singh,and the Congress,to walk the talk.

Chances are,judging by their track record,they will miss this one chance as well.

The writer is executive editor,‘Loksatta’,girish.kuber@expressindia.com