While on his trip abroad, industrialist Mukesh Ambani unnecessarily touched upon the sensitive issue by commenting on ‘compulsion of Marathi’ while issuing licenses to new cab drivers in Mumbai. His comments were really uncalled for, as there already exists this law of ‘knowledge of Marathi to cab drivers;’which has been enforced 20 years ago. So, where was the question of raising this unnecessary debate? Our Marathi TV channels had a ready made material for debate and it just sparked off, with- for and against comments, coming from Political circles. And, one of the Politicians openly pointed out; that there were many people sitting there in Delhi, who are just waiting to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra for their personal gains. The TV news channels also clearly showed the defeat of chief minister in the cabinet meeting debate over his U turn on the statement made earlier on this issue.

Last week, even the Home Minister of India added fuel to this burning issue by making a statement, which only hurt the sentiments of the marathi people living in Mumbai. And, now with the worst comments coming from Rahul Gandhi, it has only set this issue on fire. “The statement made by the young leader was simply to provoke people from Bihar against people from Maharashtra, just for the sake of vote bank politics,” so was the view of majority of Marathi news channels . His comments were not well accepted by people from Maharashtra, as the tone was simply keeping an eye on elections in Bihar. A person who opposed regional politics, had himself adopted the same path. In fact, he created a blunder by giving a regional colour to NSG.

Star Majha channel repeatedly highlighted this issue, by playing the speeches of politicians -for and against Marathi language and left it to the viewers to decide; who was right and who was wrong. But, on the whole, their tone was in favour of those who reacted sharply on Rahul Gandhi’s and Mukesh Ambani’s uncalled statements.

At a time when English and Hindi news channels were bias towards Marathi issue in Mumbai, for obvious reasons; the Marathi news channels played their cards well, to unite Marathi people for a just cause, which was in the interest of local people. IBN – Lokmat tried to invite opinion from experts. In their ‘Great Bhet’ programme, even prolific writer Shobha De offered her sensible views this issue of Marathi. Ms. De said that there was nothing wrong in making Marathi compulsory for cab drivers in Mumbai; as in every metro like Bangalore, West Bengal and other states, the cab drivers are supposed to know their local language. So, what’s wrong in implementing Marathi, for issuing licenses to new cab drivers in Mumbai ? she questioned. She specifically blamed the ruling party Ministers for not being firm on implementing the law. “ Our Ministers don’t stand firm on their words and they are used to taking U turn on their previous statements,” she said.

In all, we are finding a lot of entertainment through news on these channels and at the same time also coming to know the true colours of some of our Politicians, who are against favouring Marathi in Mumbai. And, one thing is sure that none of these marathi news channels are showing any kind of bias towards any party or person. The content of news have been more in the interest of people from Maharashtra.

by Ulhas Shirke © MMW