Todays State: Lack of leaders...

We completed 51 yrs of Maharashtra state. When we were young and studying outside the state, all other state residents were envious about our state esp those from north and east. Country has been glamoured by Mumbai mainly out of bollywood, cricket, share market, business headquartered in south mumbai, taj oberoi, bandra, juhu, its lifestyle. They did not know much about rest of maharashtra. They knew about Pune mainly due to its young, hep crowd, weather, defence establishments (where many chose to retire). Beyond that they had only heard about nagpur oranges/rss headquarters, kolhapuri chappals and mirchis... period... Now that was the outside image of state.
Those inside has various things that constituted meaning of maharashtra. We were immemnsely proud about our heritage. Be it saints like dynaneshwar, tukaram or be it history mainly with shivaji, peshwas, holkars , shindes. We were leaders in cooperative movement with prosper farmers esp in western maharahstra. We in Pune had rich social service heritage with Tilaks, Agarkars, ranades, gokhales. We were also ahead in empowering neglected sections helped by some great leaders like Phule, Ambedkar, shahu maharaj. We had great literature and talent like that of Atre, Kusumagraj, PL, Vinda just to name a very few. We had good drama movement. Indian Film industry was born here and had great names like Phalke, prabhat, bhalji, raja paranjpe etc leading from front. Cricket culture in mumbai (and to some extent Nagpur)is folklore. Wrestlers in Kolhapur made name. Pune led in education. We had good universities for agriculture and engineering. we had great industrial belts like Thane, chinhwad and many more.Only problem with maharashtra was lack of good political leadership . We never had leader of national stature. In fact that was the problem of all leaders south of Vindhya. Some shrewd leaders from south gained top spots due to dynastic vacuum or sheer luck. Also another breed of regional leaders got away with good deals due to coalition politics. But maharashtra never had such gutsy politicians who bargained for state inspite state being highest contributor to party headquarters or towards govt exchequer. all and sundry in congress felt highest achievement to be confidant of Gandhi nehru clan. Last leader of national stature was dr B R Ambedkar. There was no real opposition to congress except during emergency when all intellegenisia and committed thought leaders (socialists) and opportunist (pawar and co) united to form an alternative. That dismatled in early 80s.But to form real alternative it took last decade 0f 20th century as traditional base of jansangh /rss got polarsised by Babri movement (arised out of congress misleadership), and urban , son of land politics by shivsena combined and formed govt in last half of nineties.
But again due to dirty politics of congress and due to failed opportunities of sharad pawar, congress came back and we now are where we are. First decade of naughties have taken us back 20 years. Nothing new is happening. Even in non related areas like music and drama we tend to rely upon past laurels than new work. cimena exception to this. some attribute decline conveniently to shivsena bjp govt when surplus budget got into deficit. But one has also to ackowledge work on mumbai flyovers, expressways, golden quadrilaterals etc . Congress cannot claim a single achievement except making alcohol double costly and further distressing families wrongly aligned with that disctraction. Jaitapur is another distant dream but wrongly managed. Industry has declined with every industrial land owner dreaming of a mall or office complex on his land. IT which started in SEEPZ Mumbai, is now only restricted to hinjewadi pune. Pune has done well thanks to educational institutes to create supply of labour for IT but now will lose advantage due to builder/leader nexus to escalate costs.
so whats maharashtra known for today esp by outsiders: Raj Thakrey and bal Thakrey have gained notoriety due to pariochal politics, Bombay is Mumbai now and there is fashion amongst cosmo english speaking media to hate Thakrey politics both sides. But moment you have sympathisers for both clans, one needs to understand that there is thought process which fet denied and thus the support. But both clans need to understand that there needs more than just posturing to make policies and do things of substance but you need to give them benifit of doubt that they were in power for only 5 yrs againts congress corruption for 46 yrs. also we should all unite against our common evil: both congress and not family egos. That is also another problem.
leading to corruption, maharashtra's identitity now is pawars, chavans, kalmadis involved in multi crores of scams with no respite in form of punishment etc. Nothing new happening in literature thanks to lack of marathi support by marathi parents. In education, no pioneering work exept minting money by private operators. In industry we lack behind well meaning gujarat. Load shedding and farmer suicides being common place, we cannot claim to be developed society. Thanks to all our leaders for this plight. So let me conclude that afer 51 yrs of formation of maharashtra we dont have leaders to lead us. Much proven case for false leaders like yours truly