By S Balakrishnan
@zindashahid
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis is displaying a level of aggression rarely seen in him in the past. He is at the vanguard of a ferocious campaign against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition on the issue of corruption. This move represents yet another attempt by the BJP to unseat the Uddhav Thackeray government.
One cannot but concur with Fadnavis that senior cop Param Bir Singh’s allegation that the home minister asked controversial API Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 Cr every month is a matter of disgrace.
But, the question to be asked is whether Fadnavis has the moral authority to talk about corruption. During his earlier stint as leader of the opposition, he had consistently targeted NCP’s Ajit Pawar for his alleged role in the Rs 90,000 Cr irrigation scam.
But after he became the Chief Minister (CM), he did not even lift his little finger against Ajit Pawar. He later took Pawar to Raj Bhavan even as the state was fast asleep and got himself sworn-in as the CM and Pawar as deputy CM! It was a shameless display of greed for power which mercifully did not last long.
As CM, Fadnavis welcomed into the party fold NCP’s Vijaykumar Gavit who was indicted by a high court-appointed committee of a Rs 6,000-Cr tribal funds scam.
The SC found that over 11,000 state govt employees had got jobs based on fake caste certificates. Instead of sacking and prosecuting them, Fadnavis did everything possible to protect them.
Several instances can be cited to prove corrupt governance during Fadnavis’ five-year tenure.
The tragedy of Maharashtra is that an alternative to the equally corrupt ruling dispensation and opposition is nowhere in sight.
What makes the situation grimmer that the cynical slugfest between the government and the opposition is taking place even as the pandemic is raising, its sinister head all over again and the state’s economy is trying to find its feet after the severe drubbing given by the lockdown.
(The author S Balakrishnan is a former journalist of The Times of India who is currently practising law at Bombay High Court)
