Election Diary - Day 2

For about a month, the state government bombarded electronic and print media with their ads projecting Maharashtra as a No.1 state. The government spent huge money on these ads trying to convince us of their `successful’ tenure! The state is in huge debt of approx. three lac crores but the government had no hesitation in spending crores of taxpayers’ money for their election campaigns!

For the government that is in power for fifteen consecutive years, it shouldn’t have to ideally tom-tom so much about their ‘achievements’. Their governance should speak for itself! The facts and figures should say it before their ads do! But what their ads projected and what they hid will be amply clear with just a glance at these substantiated facts! Once one of the top states in agriculture, Maharashtra doesn’t even feature in top five in the segment today. The unemployment rate is constantly on the rise and so are the farmers’ suicides, debts, scams and crime rates, just to name a few! So, yes No.1 in these areas, for sure!

In Aurangabad yesterday, CM Prithivraj Chavan regretted about functioning of the PWD department, indirectly hinting at NCP Minister Chagan Bhujbal’s performance. There were many things on CM’s list “that could and should have been done but were not done’’, primarily due to internal conflicts and politics of NCP-Congress. Looking back, the Alliance spent these fifteen years only in corruption, one-upmanship, accusing each other of `policy paralysis’, indecisiveness and so on! What they have accomplished in the last 15 years will truly make a very interesting topic for research!

So coming back to their ads with `No.1’ claims, should we believe in what they want us to? No, we need to get a real picture- a picture that will speak more than sad thousands words and scary statistics!