MVA parties attack Centre over ‘bias’

With little over six months left for the politically crucial elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the tug-of-war between the ruling and opposition parties kicked off over the discriminate treatment given to Maharashtra as compared to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat

With little over six months left for the politically crucial elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the tug-of-war between the ruling and opposition parties kicked off over the discriminate treatment given to Maharashtra as compared to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat. Issues ranging from PM Modi’s recent tour of Gujarat after Cyclone Tauktae to vaccine allocation to the state have once again triggered the comparison over the treatment to the two states; and it may intensify ahead of BMC elections.

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The ruling parties in Maharashtra have criticised PM Modi and his party for the step-motherly treatment to Maharashtra. All the three ruling parties — the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress — slammed the PM for not visiting Maharashtra and other cyclone-hit states and choosing only Gujarat to take a review of damages this week. Modi on Tuesday did an aerial survey of parts of the Gujarat which was hit by Cyclone Tauktae on Monday and announced a relief package of ₹1,000 crore for the state. Congress’s state unit chief Nana Patole, NCP leader and state minister Nawab Malik, and Sena MP Sanjay Raut raised questions over PM’s bias. “Why did Modi not visit the cyclone-affected areas of Maharashtra? Is he the prime minister of Gujarat only,” Patole remarked.

Sena mouthpiece Saamana on Friday said that Gujarat and Maharashtra are twins but when it comes to relief packages, the former is treated as a stepchild. An editorial in Saamana questioned as to why the PM has not conducted an aerial visit in Maharashtra, adding that Cyclone Tauktae has left a trail of destruction in Goa and Maharashtra.

“Why should the Centre, which has given ₹1,000-crore relief package to Gujarat, discriminate against Maharashtra and Goa?… Gujarat is Maharashtra’s twin brother. The stepbrother treatment given to Maharashtra of late is not correct. Keeping in mind that Mumbai contributes ₹2.5 lakh crore annually to Delhi, there is no harm in expecting that the rulers of Delhi will provide relief of around ₹2,000 crore for the people who were displaced in Konkan,” it said.

The Sena mouthpiece said that Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, who is on a tour of affected areas in Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg, should tell the Centre to provide help to the state. “Fadnavis has demanded that the state government give an abundant package for affected areas. He should make this demand forcefully with the Centre. He is from Maharashtra, he must forget political lines and tell Modi saheb to give relief like the Centre gave to Gujarat,” the editorial said.

Maharashtra BJP chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said, “First, it is the duty of the state to provide immediate relief. They have not announced any relief but are expecting the Centre to give. The Centre will definitely give relief packages to the states which have been affected by the cyclone.”

On Friday, Congress raised questions over the “step-motherly” treatment to Maharashtra while allocating Covid vaccines. After a spat between the leaders from both the sides over short supply of vaccine and its wastage in Maharashtra last month, Congress’s general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant alleged that the Centre supplied vaccines to Gujarat disproportionately.

Sawant asked as to why the Modi-led Centre allotted 16.2 million vaccine doses to Gujarat, against just 20.15 million doses to Maharashtra when the latter’s population is double than Modi’s home state. “The distribution of vaccines should have been in the proportion of population, active cases, total Covid-19 cases and inoculation rate. Against 404,229 active cases of 4,978,337 infected people in Maharashtra, Gujarat has just 669,490 cases including 92,617 active cases. Similarly, Maharashtra has reported 84,371 deaths while Gujarat reported 9,340 deaths, as on May 19. In vaccination Maharashtra tops in the country, while its population (around 130 million) is double than Gujarat’s population. Despite this, Maharashtra has got much less vaccine doses from the Centre,” he said.

Sawant also questioned Fadnavis and other BJP leaders to reply over the discrimination. “BJP leaders have been claiming Maharashtra received highest number of doses, because of which it could achieve the top positon in vaccination. They should speak about the special treatment given to Gujarat,” he said.

MVA leaders have upped the ante against the BJP by attacking the Centre over the alleged discrimination in allocation of the Covid-related medical equipment and vaccines. State public health minister Rajesh Tope has been attacking the Centre over short supply of vaccines and oxygen to Maharashtra by the Centre.

The leaders feel the political rhetoric and comparison between Maharashtra and Gujarat is expected to intensify as BMC elections near. “High stakes are involved for both Sena and BJP in the polls for one of the richest civic bodies in Asia. The attack and counter-attack will go on increasing between ruling and opposition parties. The card of Marathi pride is always played by the Sena during elections and it has the old backdrop of six decades, since the days of fight for unified Maharashtra. The incidents of favouritism to Gujarat at the cost of Maharashtra may play a crucial role in this political game plan,” said a NCP leader.

The ruling parties have always been playing up incidents such as shifting International Financial Services Centre from Mumbai to Gujarat, shifting National Institute of Coastal Policing from Palghar to Dwarka in Gujarat five years ago. The Sena has staunchly opposed Modi’s dream project of Bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, saying it was meant to benefit Gujarat.

Political analyst Hemant Desai said that though Gujarat has been given an upper hand by the PM, it would not emerge as Maharashtra versus Gujarat or Marathi versus Gujarati in the BMC elections. “The Sena, under Uddhav or Aaditya Thackeray, had never taken anti-Gujarati or anti-north Indian stand over all these years. It is true that Gujarat has got favoured treatment under Modi, be it shifting of IFSC, bullet train designed to give advantage to Gujarat, shifting of RBI offices to Gujarat and now the relief package to the state,” he said.