It’s been 8 months since the government led by chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis came to power. They also presented their first budget recently with a host of welfare schemes for the people. Schemes like providing Rs 6,000 as income support to farmers under the Kisan Samman Nidhi, crop insurance for Re.1, increase in salary of teaching staff and increase in remuneration paid to Asha workers were introduced. This brought a lot of appreciation from people for this Shinde – Fadnavis government.
Not just through the budget, but the government also reduced VAT on petrol and diesel immediately after coming to power, thereby giving relief to the common man. The government also made sure that financial assistance was directly deposited in the bank accounts of farmers affected by natural calamities. It may be recalled that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, during its tenure, had announced to give Rs 50,000 as incentive subsidy to farmers who made regular loan repayments, but it was never implemented. And immediately after coming to power, the Shinde-Fadnavis government disbursed the incentive amount.
At this juncture, when people of Maharashtra are happy to have a people-centric government, systematic attempts are being made to create obstacles in the way this government functions. Lakhs of state government employees have gone on strike to press their demand for restoration of the old pension scheme. Their strike was still on when this article was being penned down. It may be recalled that the issue of old pension scheme was raised by some public representatives during the Assembly session last year when the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was in power. In response to this, the then deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who was also the finance minister, had rejected their demand stating that it was not possible to implement the old pension scheme for state government employees. At that time, there were no protests against the MVA government, no one called for a strike nor did anyone oppose Ajit Pawar, who had firmly stated that it was not possible to restore the scheme. And now, when the MVA government is no longer in power, the demand for old pension scheme has resurrected, the unions have gone on strike and are protesting against chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
To protest for one’s demands and to hold the government to task to get them fulfilled is every citizen and government employee’s right. As citizens of this country, we all have freedom of expression and hence we are not against this agitation. But what is interesting is the fact that these agitations and protests are being systematically carried out now, during the Shinde-Fadnavis government’s tenure. Is it a subject for research?
Recently, even Uddhav Thackeray emphasized that the Shinde-Fadnavis government must restore the old pension scheme for state government employees. When this gentleman was holding the position of chief minister for two-and-a-half years, he never had the time to visit Mantralaya to carry out the affairs of the state. He did not realise that by sitting at home and making appearances through Facebook Live, one cannot understand the plight of the common man. And now, this self-willed gentleman is arguing how the old pension scheme must be restored.
For two-and-a-half years i.e., from December 2019 to June 2022, the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena government was in power in the state. During this time, farmers in Konkan were severely hit by cyclone and those from Vidarbha, Marathwada and Northern Maharashtra were hit by unseasonal rains and suffered huge losses. They have still not forgotten how Uddhav Thackeray, before becoming the chief minister, had visited them and demanded that farmers affected by heavy and unseasonal rains must be compensated to the tune of Rs 25,000 per hectare while the orchard farmers must be compensated Rs 50,000 per hectare. Similar demands were made by both the Congress and the NCP as well. However, the moment these three parties came to power, they forgot about these demands.
On this occasion, I am reminded of the number of morchas, agitations and the way these protestors used to get violent in their demonstrations during Devendra Fadnavis’s tenure as the chief minister. Under some or the other pretext, they used to take to streets and try to destroy public properties. All these were systematically conspired to make sure that Fadnavis’s government is left with no choice but to initiate strict action against them, at times also leaving no scope for the police machinery from taking action against them to prevent them from getting violent. At that time, had the police resorted to open fire or such other means to stop them, these agitators would have succeeded in creating unrest about Fadnavis government. But this government never used weapons against them. And hence the efforts, of certain forces who were deliberately trying to create unrest, got foiled.
One will recollect the protest by state transport (ST) workers during MVA government’s tenure as they had not received their rightful salaries for a very long time. Nearly 100 ST employees had also committed suicide for not receiving their salaries. Realizing that the government was not paying any heed to their demands, families of ST employees suddenly took their protest outside senior NCP leader Sharad Pawar’s residence in Mumbai. The Bharatiya Janata Party had not approved of that agitation as well. But one must realise that since the families of ST employees had lost their patience, they had resorted to something like this. The Aghadi government out of revenge registered cases at different places against these protestors. What surprises me is that even after the MVA government trying to rampantly stifle democracy and freedom of expression, there was not a word of protest uttered against them across the state.
The Congress-NCP Aghadi government was in power for 15 consecutive years from 1999 to 2014. The old pension scheme was scrapped in 2005, i.e., during their tenure only. However, from 2005 to 2014 not a single agitation took place against it. But when Devendra Fadnavis became the chief minister, attempts were made to incite violence in the state and now once again after he has resumed power, efforts are being made to create unrest. Not just in Maharashtra, but there had been attempts to incite violence even at the Centre after CAA, the Agriculture Act and the Agniveer recruitment drive. After seeing these developments is it difficult to guess who that mastermind could be and what could be their motives. One thing is for sure, these forces are indeed trying hard to internally weaken not just Maharashtra but the entire country.
(Article
Pre-Published in Times of India Online
–20 March 2023)
Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson
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