The Maharashtra Government is planning celebration and well-deserved on at that as The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government has planned a celebration to mark the 100th year of Prabodhan, a periodical no longer in publication, but one that was started by the chief minister’s grandfather, Keshav Thackeray, using the state’s coffers.
As part of the celebration, the Maharashtra government plans to spend Rs 27 lakh — Rs 12 lakh to publish an anthology of articles by eminent writers who were published in Prabodhan and Rs 15 lakh on producing a film on the life and times of Keshav Sitaram Thackeray.
The Maharashtra government’s Marathi language department, headed by Shiv Sena’s Subhash Desai, a member of the state’s legislative council, issued the formal order on 3 August.
Born in 1885, Keshav Thackeray was a writer and social reformer, and one of the key leaders of the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti, which campaigned for the linguistic state of Maharashtra. He started the fortnightly periodical Prabodhan, meaning ‘Enlightenment,’ on 16 October 1920. Keshav Thackeray started being known as ‘Prabodhankar,’ because of the periodical.
Bhushan Gagrani, principal secretary of the Marathi language department, stated that the spending on celebrating a publication started by the chief minister’s grandfather does not amount to any conflict of interest in this case.
“Prabodhankar Thackeray had his own standing in society. His name is counted among one of Maharashtra’s greatest social reformers, in the same thread as Mahatma Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar. It just happens to be the case that his grandson is the CM of the state when Prabodhan, the periodical he started, is celebrating its 100th year,” said Gagrani.
An official from the department who did not wish to be named said that “many persons have made important contributions to Maharashtra’s social, cultural, literary, political, educational, creative and other sectors. There have also been many ideologues who have made exemplary contributions to progressive Maharashtra’s ideological development”.
