Now, that the
Foxconn-Vedanta project has finally gone to Gujarat, the Penguin Sena with its
leftover Shiv Sena, that was in power till June in Maharashtra, has started
cribbing for this loss. Even in the media a group of journalists, also began
complaining about the project moving out of Maharashtra. Of course, the Penguin
Sena and its leftover Sena had no option but to crib and complain. When they
realised that their cribbing and complaining is serving them no good, they took
their favoured few media personnel to repeatedly spread false information about
the project.
You may be aware about a sect called ‘Rudali’ in North India. These
women are called after the demise of a person. This tribe goes to the house of
the deceased and cry their hearts out. A similar tribe is now being created in
Maharashtra. Anyway, that is not the subject of discussion here. What is
important is how the Penguin Sena literally chased a huge investment project
like Foxconn out of Maharashtra only because they failed to get their desired
share. Well, despite the Penguin Sena trying hard to harp on this, the Marathi
Manoos, who by now is aware about its working, turned a blind eye to the
Penguin Sena’s crocodile tears. The Marathi Manoos has come to terms that the
Penguin Sena and the Leftover Sena works purely on ‘khandani’ (extortion) and
‘vasooli’ (recoveries). This Penguin Sena, during its two-and-a-half years of
tenure in government, not with their hard-earned money but fed Matoshri with
its ‘Pathani Vasooli Raj’ (recoveries done in Pathan-style).
On a sarcastic note, it hasn’t been too long that a play titled
‘Sangeet Vazegandha’ (pun intended) was staged in front of us. This came to
light when an explosive-laden car was found parked outside the residence of
industrialist Mukesh Ambani. Now the producers of this play have produced yet
another one-man show in the name of Foxconn. Vedanta’s chief Anil Agarwal,
through his tweet, clarified why Foxconn moved to Gujarat. It is natural for
any investor to look at issues of feasibility before investing. Also, they need
a politically conducive environment in that state before they invest.
Penguin Sena’s veteran leader Subhash Desai was the industries minister
during the tenure of the MVA government. He had announced that owing to some
reasons this project will not come to Maharashtra. It may be recalled that
during Devendra Fadnavis’ tenure as the chief minister, his government had
taken several visionary decisions to bring Maharashtra to the forefront in
terms of industrial investments. In 2016, the Fadnavis government had
formulated the ‘Maharashtra Electronics Policy’ considering the electronic
semiconductor chip manufacturing sector. None other state governments in the
country have ever formulated such a policy. It was owing to this policy
decision that Foxconn, which is also a global leader in manufacturing mobile
phones like Apple, Xiaomi and Blackberry, initiated steps towards investing
over $ 5 billion in Maharashtra.
During the Fadnavis government, follow-up for this project was also
carried out. Had Devendra Fadnavis become the chief minister as per the mandate
given by the people in the 2019 Assembly elections, this project would have
been set up in Maharashtra only. But the ‘Rahu’ and ‘Ketu’ along with their
unnatural association with Matoshree, took Maharashtra way behind in terms of
industrial investment. The favourable situation for the setting up of
Foxconn-Vedanta project in Maharashtra as created by the Fadnavis government
was deliberately made unfavourable by the MVA government.
The MVA government wanted to bring Vedanta-Foxconn investments to
Maharashtra on its own terms. The Penguin Sena failed to realise that no
industrialist will accept the conditional motherhood of ‘Matoshree’. As a
result, the Vedanta-Foxconn changed its mind and cancelled its proposal of
setting up the project here in Maharashtra. Even before the Shinde-Fadnavis
government came to power, the Vedanta-Foxconn had decided not to invest in
Maharashtra. In order to hide the incompetence of his father, the Penguin Sena
chief began this hue and cry about the project going to Gujarat.
If we look at the performance of the Penguin Sena, we will realise how
it has been instrumental in ensuring that investors go away from Maharashtra
with their projects. A huge investment to the tune of Rs 3.50 lakh crores was
expected to come to Maharashtra by way of projects like Nanar. But this project
was also opposed by the Penguin Sena and people from Konkan will never forget
about it. Over five lakh direct and indirect employment would have been generated
by this project. But instead of keeping a futuristic vision of employment
generation, the Sena only brought disruption in its execution. When Fadnavis
government had decided to start the construction of the Samriddhi Mahamarg,
Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar were the first ones to oppose this
decision. Ignoring the fact that infrastructural investment opens up avenues
for development, they kept on opposing the work on this expressway. Thackeray
government only was responsible for disturbing the Rs 20,000 crore Metro 3
project. Knowing this history of the Penguin Sena to shut and stall projects,
Vedanta-Foxconn must have decided to drop its plans of setting up their project
in Maharashtra and moved to Gujarat.
The Penguin Sena, after coming to power, demanded percentage from the
concessions offered by the earlier Fadnavis government to industries to set up
their projects here in Maharashtra. During the tenure of the MVA government the
Ola project was taken over by Tamil Nadu and the Tesla project was hijacked by
Karnataka. Expecting that investors must set up their projects in Maharashtra
on terms and conditions of rulers, costed the state dearly. This was the only
reason for the Foxconn-Vedanta project to also move out of Maharashtra. The Penguin
Sena is unnecessarily targeting the Shinde-Fadnavis government to cover up
their incompetence. And since we know the modus operandi of this Penguin Sena,
we are aware that they are going to resort to such tactics and make this
‘pretence’ again and again.
(Article Published in Times of India Online – 19 Sep. 22)
Keshav Upadhye, Chief
Spokesperson
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