The
government led by chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister
Devendra Fadnaviswill complete a year in a couple of days. During this period,
the incumbent government took certain decisive steps of filling the development
backlog created during the two-and-a-half years tenure of the Maha Vikas Aghadi
and tried to reinstate Maharashtra at the number One position in the country.
And during this time, when an advertisement praising the works of the state
government and complimenting the performance of chief minister Eknath Shinde
got published, the Opponents of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena
alliance tried to make the best of this opportunity.
The
Opposition raised questions on the unity and mutual trust of the BJP-Shiv Sena
alliance. In fact, they were sure to complete their 5-years governance in
Maharashtra but had to step down before that. Since they are unable to digest
this grief, they are leaving no stone unturned to badmouth and spread false
propaganda about the incumbent government. And from this mentality only, they
started spreading false news that industries are moving out of Maharashtra.
They are constantly trying to spoil the social harmony in the state. Now when
they realised that this wasn’t taking them anywhere in poisoning people’s ears
about the incumbent government, the disillusioned Opposition took this
advertisement issue as a golden opportunity.
The advertisement brought criticisms, clarifications and a whole lot of speculations, which gradually settled. Whatever happened was definitely inappropriate. Now all those who did not leave the chanceto voice their opinion about the ad through various social media platforms, need to understand that in order to once again make Maharashtra a glorious nation, the Bharatiya Janata Party joined hands with Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. The BJP had a tally of 113 MLAs –its 106 MLAs and another 7 MLAs of its allies. Still, the BJP leadership showed the magnanimity and let its ally take over the chief ministerial position.
Now if we
consider the two-and-a-half-year tenure of Uddhav Thackeray as the chief
minister, Maharashtra only suffered setbacks on all fronts. Uddhav Thackeray
used all his might and authority vested in him as the chief minister and
created a culture of revenge by filing false cases against his Opponents. The
entire police force of the state was mobilized to arrest union minister Narayan
Rane, MP Navneet Rana and MLA Ravi Rana were put behind bars for sedition. This
kind of behaviour was one that would have ashamed even the Mughal dynasty or
probably even the Britishers. And amidst all this chaos, a senior leader like
Sharad Pawar, who was in alliance with Uddhav Thackeray, refused to share his
wisdom.
Projects like
Saffron and Tata Airbus went outside Maharashtra only because of former chief
minister Uddhav Thackeray’s passivity. In fact, Sachin Vaze’s extortion case
brought enough shame to Maharashtra. During the tenure of the Maha Vikas
Aghadi, new industries were not ready to come in the state. Uddhav Thackeray
also did not show the courage to arrest Sharjeel Usmani, who had attacked the
Hindus in a the most disrespectful language. Also, on the pretext of an alleged
incident in Tripura, Hindus were attacked in Nanded and Amravati. Umesh Kolhe
was murdered out of Jihadi mentality. To change this situation, the Bharatiya
Janata Party formed this alliance in wider interest of Hindutva.
All these
years, the Bharatiya Janata Party has only worked in the opposition, till 2014.
And hence, no one needs to brag that ‘BJP is in power because of us.’ Power
never fascinated us in the past and it never will in the future as well. We are
in national politics since 1951 as the Jana Sangh and later as BJP since 1980.
During this period, the country saw many national and regional parties rising
and falling. But our ideology has firmly stood with pride in the country’s
politics for over 7 decades.
During the
formation of the Jana Sangh, we had demanded that Article 370 must be repealed
and the Uniform Civil Code must be implemented. Accordingly, we made sure that
Article 370 got cancelled, thus showing our commitment. And the second demand
is also moving towards fulfilment.
We have
firmly believed that power is the tool to implement our ideology and hence we
have been working for the fulfilment of this ideology. And when attempts were
made to target BJP leaders over this advertisement, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s
lines – ‘Chhote mann se koi bada nahi hota, toote mann se koi khada nahi hota’
(a small heart can never make one big; a broken heart can never make one stand)
crossed my mind.
Despite
having more MLAs, only because the party instructed, Devendra Fadnavis did not
insist on the chief ministerial position while striking the alliance with the
Shinde group. Also, after having held the position of the state’s chief
minister for 5 years, working in the cabinet as the deputy chief minister or
any other ministerial portfolio would not look appropriate. So, Fadnavis
decided not to be
a part of the
Shinde cabinet. But when the top leadership felt that he must be a part of the
cabinet, in the wider interest of the party, he reluctantly accepted the deputy
chief minister position, considering it to be the party’s decision.
Saint Tukaram
has aptly said – ‘Jaya angi mothepan, taya yatana kathin’ (no person attains
greatness without sufferings). Despite all this, Fadnavis did not utter a
single word, in fact he showed magnanimity keeping singular interest of alliance
in mind. Today, the single most popular name in Maharashtra is Devendra
Fadnavis, but he never insisted on exhibiting how popular he is. And hence I
sincerely feel that the alliance members must also inculcate the habit of not
fighting over petty issues but only keep interests of the alliance in mind. We
must therefore pledge not to fall prey to the Opposition’s ‘ego game’ tactics
but only work towards emerging victorious in the forthcoming elections in 2024.
(Article Pre-Published in Times of India Online – 19 June 2023)
Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson
No comments:
Post a Comment