The incumbent leader of the Opposition and former
deputy chief minister Ajitdada Pawar’s recent predictions about his political
moves and his subsequent interviews has recently become the talk of the town. I
am too naïve to pour in any suggestion for him on what he must do, whether he
must stay in a party or whether he must move out. The point is that on this
occasion, it only brings to the fore not just the indifferences between the
leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi but also how Maharashtra went way behind
during the tenure of its governance.
In
an interview to a news channel, Ajitdada revealed how the governance of Maha
Vikas Aghadi was preoccupied with vindictive actions against the leaders of the
then Opposition rather than speeding up developmental activities for the state.
Also, when Uddhav Thackeray was the chief minister his one-point agenda was to
act vengeful against Devendra Fadnavis and other BJP leaders only to quench his
wrath. This was evident from various incidents. Ajitdada had also stated in one
of his interviews that had the move to arrest Devendra Fadnavis been taken in
front of him, he would have stopped Thackeray from indulging in this dirty
play. Maharashtra also saw how the entire police machinery was deployed to
arrest union minister Narayan Rane. At that time also, Ajitdada had publicly
disapproved Thackeray’s action against Rane.
By
now everyone is aware that Uddhav Thackeray never went to Mantralaya when he
was the chief minister. People have also seen how he was the last word in his
government and also that he would not pay any heed to the ministers of both,
the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party who were his alliance partners in
the government. People also saw how important projects like Foxconn went out of
Maharashtra due to sheer lackadaisical attitude of his government.
On
September 23, 2021, there was a news article published that Tata Airbus will
invest Rs 22,000 crore in Gujarat.‘Business World’ had, on February 14, 2022,
published that Airbus project will come up in Gujarat. Even The Sunday Express
had, till December 2021, published that Tata’s Airbus project will come up in
Gujarat. When the media was writing stories about this project, Uddhav
Thackeray’s government was in power in the state.
It
may be recalled that before MVA’s tenure, i.e., when Devendra Fadnavis was the
chief minister, Tata and Airbus were in talks for this project. But till then
no MoU was signed between them. Fadnavis had requested both the companies to
start the project in Nagpur and that Maharashtra would offer them all the
necessary concessions and subsidies, even more than what other states would
have to offer them. However, after the Fadnavis government stepped down from
power, there was no follow-up by Uddhav Thackeray’s government with Tatas and
Airbus.
On
April 21, 2021 when Tata-Airbus were finalising on going to Gujarat, Devendra
Fadnavis, who was the Leader of the Opposition at that time, had again tried to
intervene. He had also invited the chiefs of these companies to his government
residence ‘Sagar’. Fadnavis had urged them not to go to Gujarat. He had said,
“You please do not go to Gujarat, I will meet the chief minister and try to
resolve the issues.” Interestingly, at that time, the chiefs of these companies
declared that the environment here in Maharashtra was not conducive for making
such investments. Later, the MoU of Tata-Airbus project got signed and this was
when Uddhav Thackeray was the chief minister. What surprises me is that when
all this was happening, Thackeray had not even bothered to initiate any
communication or even send a letter to these companies asking them to change
their mind. He had grossly failed in persuading them on not going to Gujarat.
Even
Saffron project moved out of Maharashtra due to the failure of the Maha Vikas
Aghadi government. On March 2, 2021, Emmanuel Lenain, the head of the company,
had tweeted that Saffron’s factory will be set up in Hyderabad and
subsequently, the factory came into being. In 2021, when the factory was
inaugurated, Uddhav Thackeray only was the chief minister here in Maharashtra.
However, it must be noted that during August-September
2021, Devendra Fadnavis, who was the chief minister at that time, had spoken
with the representatives of this company anda delegation of this company was
called to discuss with the officials of the Industrial Development Corporation.
However, after the MVA came to power, Thackeray government did not bother to
communicate; did not send any letters to the representatives of this company.
And then, finally in 2021, the company decided to take the project out of
Maharashtra to Hyderabad.
Also, during MVA’s tenure, the implementation of
various welfare schemes for the poor got neglected. Maharashtra, that was
ranked first for implementing the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana till 2019, went
down to the 5 th position during the two-and-a-half years of MVA governmentin
the Awas Yojana (Rural) and further down to the 16 th position in implementing
the Awas Yojana (Urban). For this scheme, the Centre had allocated an amount of
Rs 2,400 crore to be distributed to the beneficiaries in Maharashtra. But the
paperwork got stuck in bureaucratic bog because the members of MVA wanted
monetary benefits in return for this financial assistance to poor.
The
process of distributing the Ayushman Bharat Yojana cards was also sluggish
during the Aghadi government’s tenure. Statistics shows that during this time,
the distribution of these cards was only 41 per cent in the state. Under this
scheme, the poor were expected to get free medical treatment up to Rs 5 lakh.
The implementation of such an excellent scheme was also sluggish during MVA’s
tenure.
In
Maharashtra, nearly 25 lakh families would have benefitted from this scheme,
but only 9 lakh families have received the cards during MVA government’s
tenure. It was also found that during their tenure, students from the scheduled
caste, scheduled tribe and OBC community did not receive scholarships. But the
moment Shinde-Fadnavis government came to power in the state, scholarships to
the tune of Rs 1,500 crore was paid to these students. The Shinde-Fadnavis
government also made sure that the accumulated arrears during the
Aghadi’stenure was honoured. They also made provisions of Rs 1,200 crore for
subsequent scholarships.
Ajitdada,
during his recent interview, revealed a part of his ‘’ Experiments with truth
‘’ and stated that he was not on terms with Uddhav Thackeray on certain issues.
Also, the fact that while in power, leaders like Ajitdada and Balasaheb Thorat
did not enjoy any say, is now, no longer a secret. Instances of industries
moving out of the state, delayed payment of scholarships to students from SC,
ST and OBC communities and sluggish implementation of the Awas Yojana led to a
great loss to Maharashtra. This reiterates the fact that the strained coalition
of the Maha Vikas Aghadi was indeed disastrous for Maharashtra. And hence I am
glad that this government finally met its fate at the earliest.
(Article Pre-Published in Times of India Online –24
April 2023)
Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson
No comments:
Post a Comment