Oppn attacks government for calendar ‘oversight’

Mumbai: The Congress and Natio-nalist Congress Party (NCP) have attacked the BJP-led state government over the state government calendar which does not mention the death anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and Jyotiba Phule.

NCP Leader of the Opposition in the state Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde demanded an apology from chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for the same and action against the person who was responsible for it. Leader of Opposition in state Legislative Assembly and senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, too, said that the state government was using the great personality (Mahapurush) for political benefits.

The state government issued a clarification, through the directorate general of information and public relations, saying that the media, without knowing the facts of the calendar, was criticising the government without any reason.

The clarification said that it had been decided to observe the birth anniversary of the great men at the government level in 2013.

Similarly, the government had also issued the order for a programme of the birth anniversary celebration. In the same way, the calendar had been designed this year.

DGIPR further said that as the death anniversary had not been mentioned in the previous ye-ars’ calendars, this year too, it had not been mentioned.

Mr Munde said that the death anniversaries of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar had not been earmarked in the 2019 calendar. He alleged that the government was intentionally insulting Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.

NCP MP Supriya Sule said in a tweet, “One hand @CMOMaharas-htra takes the name of Shahu-Phule and Ambe-dkar and other hand, you forget their names in the calendar published.”