Maha Alliance is Maharashtra’s biggest traitor

 

It has been two years since the Maha Alliance government came to power in the state. But not a single leader has so far ever spoken about the progress of the state nor about the developmental works to be undertaken in the state. Simply criticising the government at the Centre has become their one-point agenda.

Maharashtra, in the last two years, i.e., since the government came to power, has been witnessing anarchy – rising instances of corruption, government authorities getting implicated for demanding ransom, delayed work on the Metro, former minister being under arrest, atrocities against women and highest number of deaths due to Covid-19. And hence it wouldn’t be inappropriate to state that the three-party alliance government is Maharashtra’s biggest traitor.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in the Parliament drew sharp reactions from the leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. These leaders began defaming Bharatiya Janata Party calling it ‘anti-Maharashtra’. But the fact is that it is the Maha Vikas Aghadi government that has betrayed Maharashtra on several occasions in the last 26 months since coming to power. And in order to make people forget their betrayal, the leaders of this MVA government are on a spree of criticising the Prime Minister.

The intent of this article, thus, is to expose the wrongdoings of this alliance government after coming to power in November 2019.

In a recent incident, the Supreme Court slammed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government for suspending 12 Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs for one year. The Supreme Court, calling it ‘unconstitutional’, stated that the suspension of MLAs for a few weeks can be upheld but suspending MLAs for a year is tantamount to punishing the voters who elect these MLAs. It amounts to betraying the electorate who voted their representative for a term of five years, the court had stated. The suspension of these 12 MLAs amounted to depriving the voters of these 12 constituencies for one year.

On several occasions the government failed to provide relief to the cultivators of the state. After the alliance government came to power, the farmers got badly hit by natural calamities like heavy rains, cyclones, and untimely rains. Instead of reaching out to them with relief packages, the government failed to provide even the basic assured minimum compensation.

It may be recalled that before coming to power, both Uddhav Thackeray and Ajit Pawar were of the opinion that the farmers must be given an aid of Rs 50,000 per hectare, but after assuming their respective positions of the chief minister and deputy chief minister, both failed to provide even Rs 10,000 per hectare to these calamity-hit farmers. ‘Mr.Sanjay Raut, whom will you blame for this betrayal?’ Raut who is known for penning his thoughts on various subjects under his column ‘Rokhthok’ needs to clarify whether the government can now be called ‘the biggest traitor’.

In another instance, the state government had collected crores of rupees from the people in the name of Corona Relief Fund. However recently the government admitted that barely 25 per cent of it was spent. While people continue to suffer due to the economic crisis still looming high, the balance Rs 600 crore is lying unused in the coffers. The Thackeray government which has been keeping a close eye on the PM Care Fund and asking for help, has withheld this money which the Lokayukta must intervene and inquire into the reasons for holding the money back.

Also, during the pandemic period, Maharashtra was the only state to register maximum cases, highest number of deaths, highest number of infections, and thousands of lives been lost, thanks to the corrupt practices of the government. The ruling government made the best out of this opportune time.

The Thackeray government, which has been trying to cover up its every single failure by pointing fingers at the central government, failed to extend the aid received for the poor, thus leaving the needy to starve. The chief minister who preferred staying indoors even during the crucial pandemic period did not even go to Mantralaya and put the responsibility of facing the crisis on the citizens, leaving them to suffer. How best can one describe this treatment towards the people of Maharashtra?

Also, the relief announced by the Thackeray government did not reach the beneficiaries. The question thus arises – who pocketed this money? The government also failed to provide the aid received from the Centre, and as a result many families had to starve. What measures did the government initiate from the Rs 2,000 crore provided by the Centre under the Disaster Relief Fund?

The Thackeray government failed miserably to curb corruption even during the pandemic period when people of Maharashtra were reeling under severe economic crisis. Corruption was rampant during this period – corruption in availability of plastic bags required to cover bodies, corruption in PPE kits, black marketing of ventilators and drugs like Remdesivir, lack of oxygen, inequitable vaccine distribution and its stock piling, lack of quality healthcare facilities and corruption in the setting up of Covid centres had all reached its peak. At such a crucial time, the chief minister had locked himself indoors and kept reiterating his slogan ‘My Family My Responsibility’.

The government at the Centre had provided food grains worth Rs 4,592 crore to Maharashtra which included wheat worth Rs 1,750 crore, rice for Rs 2,620 crore, dal worth Rs 100 crore and another Rs 122 crore for migrant workers. A plan was chalked out to provide free food grains to the poor and another Rs 3,800 crore was deposited in bank accounts of 86,000 beneficiaries including farmers, widows, the disabled and the senior citizens in Maharashtra.

The Central government also reduced fuel tax. But the alliance government ignored the demand of reduction of VAT on fuel. While 25 states reduced the VAT, Maharashtra has yet not reduced the VAT citing reasons of poor economic condition in the state. While the alliance government refused to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel, they were forthcoming in reducing excise duty on imported Scotch whiskey by 150 per cent. Is the alliance government not concerned about its coffers now?

The chief minister also waived off the fine imposed on MLA Pratap Sarnaik’s building but did not come forward to resolve the complaints of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) employees.

Nearly 50 MSRTC employees committed suicide. Instead of working towards resolving their strike issues amicably, the government resorted to arbitrariness.

The three-party alliance government’s anti-education policy has put to stake careers of thousands of aspiring students. Thousands of students aspiring a career in the health sector were anguished when the government handed over the responsibility of conducting the exams to a fraud agency, as a result there were major goof-ups in these examinations. Also instances of paper leak and corruption in MHADA recruitment examinations were exposed. Even the OBC and Maratha reservation issue were not dealt with efficiently by the government. Is it inappropriate to complain that the government has betrayed people of Maharashtra?

The people of Maharashtra are not naive to not realise the failure and inefficiency of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government that has failed to provide relief to them but has only pointed fingers at the Centre to hide its inefficiency. Although pointing fingers at the Centre might garner some good publicity to the alliance government, in the long run there is no doubt that these three parties will emerge as ‘anti-Maharashtra’ in the eyes of the people.

 

(Article Pre-Published in Times of India, 15 February 2022)

Keshav Upadhye, chief spokesperson