No off-Centre talk: MVA’s counter to BJP on Covid-19

Coalition partners in the Maharashtra government point fingers at BJP-led Centre over vaccine shortage; will look to remove former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis sympathisers.

In view of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre going after it, the three-party Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government has decided to adopt an aggressive stance against the Central government. MVA leaders and ministers have started pointing out how the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is doing “injustice” to Maharashtra when it comes to supply of vaccines and other help needed to handle the Covid-19 situation, which has become a talking point in social media. The three parties also asked their legislators and leaders to get actively involved in helping the administration handle the pandemic and at the same time counter BJP’s allegations on poor handling of the same. MVA has also decided to identify sympathisers of the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis regime who are still in the administration and sideline them.

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For almost two months, MVA has been at the receiving end of a series of allegations against its ministers. It was further cornered after two cabinet ministers — Anil Deshmukh and Sanjay Rathod — were forced to resign following controversies. For the ruling coalition, this episode is unlikely to end soon as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has started its inquiry into the allegations against Deshmukh, former home minister, and it may look to expand its probe following fresh allegations of extortion made by Sachin Vaze, arrested police officer in the Antilia bomb scare case, against Shiv Sena minister Anil Parab, who is a close aide of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

According to MVA leaders, the ruling allies have decided to take on the BJP-led Central government since they are being pushed to corner politically.

“Will fight propaganda”

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar took a meeting of senior ministers last Friday where a strategy is said to have been discussed. He directed them to expose the BJP-led Centre’ over its “poor” handling of Covid-19 pandemic as they are facing a battle of perception.

“Basically, they are creating a perception that the three ruling parties are involved in corrupt practices since they came to power. They have also started to misuse central investigation agencies to get the job done. This fight of perception needs to be fought accordingly. The way they are trying to defame the MVA government, we need to expose them at every front. This is what Pawar saheb wants us to do,” a senior NCP minister said, requesting anonymity.

According to Sena insiders, the party has decided to take up matters related to Covid-19 and recent vaccine shortage to counter the BJP, at a meeting chaired by senior Sena leader and industries minister Subhash Desai, at the direction of party chief and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, on Saturday. Sena ministers, MPs, MLA and legislators were a part of the meeting held via video conference and have allegedly been asked to mobilise party workers in the battle against Covid-19 as well.

“The BJP has been at it since a year now. Baseless allegations upon allegations have been made. But we can only counter them with facts. Showing Maharashtra government in poor light with regards to handling of Covid-19 is clearly another campaign to defame the government. The BJP is targeting the government and CM personally. We will put out the facts on news, social media platforms, etc,” a party MP, who was present in the meeting, said.

Congress leaders said they have already decided to be vocal against the propaganda of the BJP which is making efforts to dislodge the state government. Party leaders had earlier discussed the same in a meeting chaired by Maharashtra In-charge HK Patil on April 2. “The propaganda needs to be countered with the same aggression and facts which the party has been doing for quite some time now. Our leaders have been taking upon the BJP very often, compared to the other two ruling partners,” said a senior Congress functionary, wishing not to be quoted.

Another Sena functionary, who was present at Desai’s meeting, said, “We will counter this [BJP’s campaign] with facts, by calling out the Centre’s partial treatment and injustice towards Maharashtra. Some of our leaders have been taking them on Twitter and on news channels, and it will continue. At the same time, we will put out Uddhav Thackeray’s decisions in the public domain for people to judge.”

Weed out sympathisers

In addition, MVA will also start identifying sympathisers of the Fadnavis regime and move them to less significant positions, said a senior NCP functionary. “This will help the MVA government avoid unnecessary troubles in future. It is expected to start with the home department as the new home minister (DIlip Walse Patil) has been given the responsibility to get it done on priority basis,” he said.

Days after NCP’s Dilip Walse Patil took charge as home minister, senior IPS officer Sanjay Pandey was appointed as acting director general of police (DGP). Pandey has also started a preliminary inquiry against former Mumbai Police chief Param Bir Singh based on the report submitted by Mumbai Police commissioner Hemant Nagrale. Pandey is expected to submit the report in few weeks.

The home department is also mulling over action against senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla as Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis allegedly used her report on corruption in police transfers to level allegations against the government, which indicates that she may have leaked the documents. “While we will have a legal battle against the inferences the CBI draws on the allegations against Deshmukh, the action [against Shukla] will send a message to those in the administration who have been hand in glove with the opposition,” said a senior NCP minister.

The NCP, however, said that it is just fighting the propaganda against the government. “We have decided to counter their propaganda of lies by bringing out the facts before the people. This is the reason the MVA, especially NCP, has become vocal against the shortage of vaccine doses. People should know who is doing injustice with Maharashtra and what is going on in the name of politics. We will keep bringing the facts before them, as this is the only way to fight against the lies spread by the BJP,” said Nawab Malik, NCP chief spokesperson and minority affairs minister.

Covid issues

Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut also took on the Central government over fewer vaccine stock provided to Maharashtra and lack of availability of antiviral drug Remdesivir, which is used to treat critically-ill Covid-19 patients. Raut said the politics played by BJP is “condemnable”.

“Today, vaccine and Remdesivir injections are readily available in the BJP headquarters in Gujarat, but not in Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh. This is inhumanity, and we do not see this as an attempt to keep the country as one. The kind of politics that is being played, that too through the administration, is condemnable. The opposition party in Maharashtra should be the first to condemn this as this is an insult of the state. If they do not see this as an insult, then they do not have the right to practice politics in this state,” Raut said.

Arif Naseem Khan, working president, state Congress unit, echoed Raut’s view and said, “There should not be any politics over handling of Covid-19. Maharashtra is the most-affected state and is taking all the efforts including stricter restrictions and a relief package of around ₹7,000 crore for the affected sections of the society. The Centre should support the state in this fight, and there should not be any shortage of vaccine, oxygen and Remdesivir doses.”

Raut added, “I am surprised that the three states that the [Union health] secretary has mentioned have failed to tackle Covid are all non-BJP states. So, have only non-BJP ruled states failed and Covid-19 fled from the states where there is a BJP CM? The Centre must behave in a sensitive manner and desist from such allegations,” Raut said.

To deal with the shortage of blood, the Congress state unit on Wednesday launched a statewide drive with a target of collecting 200,000 units of blood. The virtual event was attended by HK Patil, Mallikarjun Kharge, Mukul Wasnik, Prithviraj Chavan and other senior leaders. It has also decided to set up a helpline in each district to help Covid patients with getting beds etc.

BJP hits back

However, the BJP said the MVA is getting a bad reputation because of its own deeds.

Madhav Bhandari, vice-president of state BJP wing, said the ongoing inquiry against Deshmukh was ordered by the Bombay high court and it was started following the allegations made by the former Mumbai Police chief, and added that the coalition partners are dragging the BJP in the issue for no reason.

“Currently, only CBI inquiry is going on into the allegations against Deshmukh. It was also not started by the Centre. The allegations were made by Param Bir Singh, former Mumbai commissioner, and an inquiry was ordered by the high court. Even the Supreme Court refused to give any relief to the then home minister. So what is the Centre or BJP’s role in it and why is MVA blaming them,” Bhandari asked.

Meanwhile, Fadnavis on Monday said that he will take appropriate action to dislodge the state government at an appropriate time. Campaigning for the party candidate in Pandharpur, he said, “Leave it to me when the government needs to be changed, but bypoll is necessary as the people of Pandharpur got the first chance to show the government, which is involved in all sorts or corrupt practices, its place … I will do the correct programme; don’t worry about that. You just elect Samadhan Autade,” Fadnavis said while campaigning for the party candidate in Pandharpur. The constituency is going for bypolls on April 17.

Political analyst Pratap Asbe said the MVA partners took too long to start countering the BJP which has caused a major beating to their image. “The coalition partners remained defensive for too long a period and started countering the BJP and Centre over vaccine shortage only now. They should have started taking on them soon after the allegations were made over various issues. They should have become offensive instead of adopting a defensive stand in this political fight. The delay in giving appropriate response to the allegations has also dented MVA’s image which cannot be overlooked,” Asbe said.

“On one hand BJP leaders assure that they will support the state government in the battle against Covid-19 and on the other, they talk about doing the correct programme (referring to Fadnavis’s statement at Pandharpur). They are exposing themselves by saying such things,” he commented.

After the ruling coalition started pointing out a shortage of vaccine doses, the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit has decided to counter it by putting out daily vaccine stock data on social media platforms for the information of the people. For the last three days, state BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye has been sharing the details on his Twitter handle.

“The state received 12,962,470 vaccines doses, of them, 11,164,812 doses have been administered to beneficiaries and 1,797,658 doses have been left till the morning of April 14,” Upadhye said in a tweet on Wednesday.