Within months after the Congress accused the Modi Government of trying to “reduce” importance of Mumbai through its move to shift the three divisions of RBI’s department to New Delhi, the Shiv Sena and MNS on Saturday raked up a similar controversy by opposing the demand by a BJP MP from Gujarat to shift the Western Railway headquarters from Mumbai to Ahmedabad.
In a letter shot-off to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Sena MP Sanjay Raut charged that the demand by Gujarat MP Kirit Premjibhai Solanki in Parliament on Friday was part of a larger “conspiracy” to shift key offices of Central Government out of Mumbai to “undermine” its importance as a financial capital.
A BJP MP from Ahmedabad-West, Solanki has made this demand on the ground that Ahmedabad was more centrally located than Mumbai for managing the operations of the Western Railways. The BJP MP had made a similar demand before the Railway Budgets in the past.
Alluding to Solanki’s demand, Raut stated in his letter, “Though Mumbai has been Maharashtra’s capital for last 60 years, there have been attempts at all levels to undermine Mumbai’s importance. The move to shift the Western Railways headquarters from Mumbai is part of the a aconspiracy to shift out key offices in Central Government’s jurisdiction outside Maharashtra with the intention of weakening the State”.
Raut urged the Chief Minister to follow up with the Centre and ensure against the shifting of Western Railways headquarters out of Mumbai. “In addition to taking up with the matter with the Centre, we would like you to clarify your stand clear on the subject,” Raut said.
Reacting to Solanki’s demand, MNS chief Raj Thackeray said in Nashik, “I have been saying the same thing for quite some time. In fact, I had raised this issue in my speeches during the Assembly poll campaign. When I said this publicly, media organisations targeted me and accused me of changing my position”.
Raut’s demand for a clarification on the issue from Fadnavis should be seen in the light of the fact that neither the Chief Minister nor the BJP has so far reacted to similar allegations made by MNS chief Raj Thackeray and senior Congress leader Narayan Rane during the campaign for the State Assembly polls held in October.
Citing specific instances of the Modi Government’s attempts to undermine the importance of Mumbai, Raut said, “During the last four months, three key departments at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) headquarters in South Mumbai had been shifted to New Delhi, container business at Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) had been diverted to Mundra port in Gujarat”.
“The Air India headquarters at Nariman Point in South Mumbai has been nearly shut down, while several Marathi officers have been transferred to Delhi where they are being harassed. Air India’s affairs are being run from Delhi now instead of Mumbai. The Rs 1000 crore coastal policing institute scheduled to come up in Palghar district has been suddenly moved to Gujarat....These instances create a suspicion whether this is a plan to cut Maharashtra’s wings and reduce Mumbai’s importance as the country’s financial capital,” Raut said.
Raut’s allegation vis-a-vis RBI is similar to the one made by Rane in the run-up to the State Assembly polls. At that time, Rane had then accused the Modi government of being biased against Maharashtra. Among other things, Rane had alleged that the NDA government, as part of its efforts to reduce the importance of Mumbai as the country’s commercial capital, had shifted three divisions of RBI’s forex department had been shifted to New Delhi and had also shut down operations at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.
Rubbishing Rane’s allegation, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in the run-up to the Assembly polls: “Not a single department of RBI has been shifted from Mumbai. This is all very irresponsible on the part of the Opposition to spread such misinformation”.
Allegations by Raut and Rane vis-a-vis the RBI notwithstanding, a senior RBI official said on Saturday: “There is no truth in the allegations made by Rane or Raut. No key department has been moved to Delhi. During the past three years, two data collection centres which are relatively insignificant have been moved to not just New Delhi but to Bangalore and other cities for optimum use of space”.
The Congress’ erstwhile ruling ally NCP had made similar allegation that the Modi government was out to undermine the importance of Maharashtra. Senior NCP leader and then State Home Minister R R Patil had alleged that the NDA government of trying to relocate the proposed National Institute of Coasting Policing (NICP) from Palghar in Maharashtra to Dwarka in Gujarat with consulting Maharashtra government, which had allocated 305 acres of land on the Palghar coast at a token price of Re 1 after a Central team had inspected and chosen it.
