Monsoon session of Maharashtra Assembly likely to be stormy

The ruling Maha Yuti will have a tough time as the opposition MVA is set to raise three-language issue.

Mumbai: Though it commands brute majority, the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maha Yuti government may have to face rough weather during the forthcoming monsoon session of Maharashtra legislature as the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi is all set raise the contentious three-language formula under the New Education Policy (NEP).

Coinciding with the sitting of the legislature, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and MNS president Raj Thackeray are holding parallel rallies and meetings to protest against what they described as forcing Hindi on the Marathi people.

Politically, the session comes at a time when there are talks about a possible alliance between the Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS as the Thackeray cousins have publicly stated their desire to sink differences and work for the larger cause of Maharashtra and Marathi manoos.

Fadnavis after holding discussions with Deputy CMs - Eknath Shinde, the chief leader of Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar, who is the NCP president, has appointed state School Education Minister Dada Bhuse to hold consultations with all stakeholders including political leaders, educationalists, language experts and litterateurs before the state takes a final call, however, the issue seems to be compounding with the Maha Vikas Aghadi opposition on its feet.

MNS announced protest march from Girgaon Chowpatty to Azad Maidan on 6 July while The Shiv Sena (UBT) has issued a call for a protest meeting in Azad Maidan on 7 July.

Both have appealed to all Marathi-speaking citizens, writers, artists, actors, and sportspersons—to support the initiatives.

“There will be no party flags—only one agenda: to oppose the government’s move to impose Hindi. I appeal to everyone to join this protest walk. I chose Sunday specifically so that students and parents can also participate,” said Raj.

“The BJP is trying to divide people on the basis of language. The BJP is imposing a language Emergency in the state. They are making Hindi compulsory in the predominantly Marathi speaking state. We are not against Hindi but such an imposition,” said Uddhav.

Reacting to the statement, Fadnavis said: “All I want to say to Uddhav Thackeray is that Marathi has far richer figures of speech than just sarcasm. Using those would be far more effective. I have nothing more to add—because there’s no compulsion to speak Hindi, but there is a compulsion to speak Marathi. Hindi is optional”.

In April, the Maharashtra government notified Hindi as a third language which will be mandatory for students in Classes 1 to 5  in Marathi and English medium schools triggering strong reactions from opposition parties - Congress, Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) and Uddhav Thackeray-headed Shiv Sena (UBT) and Raj Thackeray.

However, later, it amended the  order which  points out that  Hindi will "generally" be the third language, instead of being “mandatory”, but gives an option to opt out if 20 students per grade in a school express the desire to study any Indian language other than Hindi.

The monsoon session, 30 June-18 July, which is expected to be stormy, is very crucial as it comes ahead of the Maharashtra local bodies elections during which all the 29 municipal corporations, 257 municipal councils, 26 zilla parishads, 289 panchayat samitis would go to polls - which accounts for over 60 per cent of state’s population spread across the five geographical regions - Konkan, Western Maharashtra, North Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha.

Besides agrarian distress, the suicides of farmers in Marathwada and Vidarbha regions, the law and order situation are some of the key issues.

The Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill 2024, popularly known as Jan Suraksha Bill, is expected to be tabled during the monsoon session.

Bhuse had already met Raj, who had appealed for a two-language formula.