We will not ‘doob maro’, will keep asking questions this elections

When the dissonance was pointed out by sections of the media, when the link between Article 370 and Assembly election was questioned, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “doob maro”.

In the books of the BJP-Shiv Sena, this Assembly election is done and dusted; they believe they already have the majority. Citizens voting on October 21 and votes counted three days later are mere formalities, so they would have us believe. This is sheer arrogance and reflects in their election campaigns. This also reflects another truth of our contemporary political climate – a feeble or fractured opposition unable to and a largely pliant media unwilling to hold the government to account.

The BJP and Sena speak of an imagined enhanced status for India, the need for daily doses of nationalism. Simply put, these are not issues why Maharashtra’s voters should re-elect BJP-Sena to the Assembly. (Representational photo)

The arrogance shines through when BJP and Sena speak selectively of their achievements. They claim credit for laying a Metro network but do not say why the existing transport infrastructure continues to be in such a pathetic state that Mumbaiites have died in railway stampedes and bridge collapses on their watch. They speak of the proposed coastal road as the one-stop panacea for traffic woes without showing action taken on existing roads marked with potholes, uneven surfaces, and absent pavements. They speak of the promise of a booming economy and Foreign Direct Investment when commerce and business areas across Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) are still reeling from the impact of demonetisation and badly-executed GST. They speak of abrogating Article 370 and making Kashmir a part of India so we can all buy land there without once being mindful about the lockdown-blackout they imposed, children as young as nine years old being taken away, old women arrested for protesting peacefully, and political leaders placed in house arrests. They speak of an imagined enhanced status for India, a return of the pride of being Indian as if it ever went away, the need for daily doses of nationalism.

Simply put, these are not issues why Maharashtra’s voters should re-elect BJP-Sena to the Assembly. It is arrogance which makes the BJP-Sena believe they can contest the state election on national and international issues. When the dissonance was pointed out by sections of the media which still retain their independence, when the link between Article 370 and Maharashtra Assembly election was questioned, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “doob maro”.

Sorry, Prime Minister, we will not “doob maro”. It is our right to question your government. It is contempt which allows you to not once refer to the machines, looms and other businesses which went cold in the last five years, thanks to economic mis-management. It is arrogance when union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman turns her back coldly on hapless depositors of the PMC Bank imploring her with folded hands or cuts people down to size when they narrate troubles with GST. It is arrogance – and an astonishing level of duplicity – when you spout wise words about environment protection on television shows but your governments in the Centre and state disregard all environmental norms to pursue “development.”

There are other issues to discuss in the context of state elections: After all the talk of creating lakhs of jobs, not more than a few thousand were created; the agriculture sector is in a deeper mess with twice the number of farmers’ suicides in the last five years than in the preceding five; crop loans are untimely and inadequate, and farmers insurance scheme is a sell-out to insurance companies; more tankers are pressed into service when the promise was to make the state tanker-free; urban middle class and poor are being squeezed out of their jobs, with industrial belts in Nashik and Pune being two examples; housing for all and Swacch Bharat are a sham beyond carefully curated photo-ops; Make in Maharashtra launched with great fanfare is now unheard of; malnutrition-free Maharashtra and load-shedding-free Maharashtra are now not even in your speeches; the state debt increased from ₹2.9 lakh crore to ₹4.74 lakh core in five years with an additional ₹46,000 crore written in guarantees for infra projects.

The opposition parties, feeble and fractured as many of them are, have attempted to raise some of these issues. Large sections of the media, which are in public relations mode, have ignored them. But some of us will ask the difficult questions, we won’t “doob maro”.