Ujjain : Throwing to winds all the submissions, wishes and planning of the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan regarding maximum participation of people in the Simhastha activities, the State government on late Wednesday nominated 15 persons as ‘non-government’ members of the Central Simhastha Fair Organising Committee (CSFOC). Ironically, most of these non-government members are either BJP leaders or have RSS belongings.
To promote maximum participation of the people for the successful hosting of the international mega event—SIMHASTHA-2016—the CM had made his commitments several times during past two years at various fora. But, as soon as he made RSS pracharak Makhan Singh Chauhan as the CSFOC chairman, people have started speculating that the RSSwalas will be obliged in the CSFOC. But, adding one more step, the government included 13, out of 15, RSSwalas and BJP functionaries as non-government members of the CSFOC. Five ex-officio persons (all BJP leaders) were also made members. Their names included Babulal Jain (vice-chairman, State Planning Commission), Pradeep Pandey (vice-chairman, MP Jan Abhiyan Parishad), Ramesh Chandra Sharma (chairman, MP Karmachari Kalyan Samiti), Jagdish Agrawal (chairman, Ujjain Development Authority) and Sonu Gehlot (Speaker, Ujjain Municipal Corporation).
Those who were made members included Iqbal Singh Gandhi (City BJP chief), Shyam Bansal (BJP rural unit chief), other party functionaries namely Roop Pamnani, Prakash Chittoda, Rakesh Agrawal, Ram Chandra Korat, Priti Bhargava, Kailash Sharma (Indore BJP chief), Omkareshwar BJP MLA Lokendra Singh Tomar, RSSwalas including Vibhash Upadhyaya, Govind Sharma, Navin Arya and Mahesh Dhaliya (Indore). Only two non-BJP and non-RSSwalas persons who were made members include Pt Anand Shankar Vyas (astrologer) and Satya Narayan Pawar (former Congress MP). With these 20 nominations, the CSFOC became 90-member. All 7 BJP MLAs of the district, BJP MP, BJP Mayor, Cabinet colleagues of the CM and senior IAS and IPS officials were already made its ex-officio members. The maiden meeting of the CSFOC was also organised in Bhopal on Thursday evening under the chairmanship of the CM.
According to informed sources, the BJP government crossed all parameters in obliging the RSSwalas and BJP functionaries in the CSFOC. Generally, prominent social workers, representatives of various akhadas and religions are made the member of CSFOC. It is precedence that the CSFOC is formed at least two to three years in advance of the Simhastha so that the experiences and suggestions of the members can be incorporated for better organisation of the mega event.
Sunderlal Patwa, Digvijaya Singh and Uma Bharati did it during their CMship during Simhastha-1992 and 2004; but this time personalities having non-political background were intentionally sidelined. It is recalled here that Ujjanites use to host this mega religious congregation while keeping apart boundaries of religion, caste or creed. But, ignoring their participation in the CSFOC, the BJP government has generated a lot of heat on the issue.
