Mahayuti ministers fight, Maharashtra suffers

Forty-four commuters have died this year in train accidents between two busy stations on the Mumbai suburban network. One is Thane, the stronghold of former chief minister Eknath Shinde, now deputy chief minister. That’s 44 deaths in about 60 days. This shocking statistic is no aberration: Thane has recorded the highest number of accidental train deaths in the last two years.

Such a statistic should jolt even the most thick-skinned minister. Not Shinde. Our ‘Dedicated to Common Man’ DCM, as he likes to call himself, is busy trying to relive his chief ministership by making duplicate appointments and holding parallel meetings with bureaucrats on subjects which have already been dealt with by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Not much will come out of these meetings, bureaucrats have said privately, because Shinde doesn’t hold the finance portfolio.

It’s been three months, but the mistrust and unhappiness among the ruling Mahayuti constituents that was so evident after the Assembly results, continue to mark the coalition. It’s not just Shinde being difficult. The other deputy chief minister, Ajit Pawar, hasn’t been too co-operative either. Two ministers belonging to his party have disgraced the new government. Dhananjay Munde has been linked to the murder of a sarpanch who was resisting extortionists; and, Manikrao Kokate has just been convicted for two years for cheating. On February 25, a Nashik court suspended the sentence. But Pawar remains unfazed. A senior BJP minister’s view that “whether Kokate should resign or not is the CM’s decision” reveals not just the power equations within the coalition, but also the Mahayuti model of governance.

In his first term as chief minister, Fadnavis was nicknamed ‘Mr Clean’ by a fawning media. That moniker began to sound odd for the man who boasted of having split the undivided Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Defecting Shiv Sena MLAs, led by Shinde, were ferried by chartered flights and provided lavish hospitality in another Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state. In his second term, the BJP prefers the title ‘Development Man’ for Fadnavis. Its propaganda machine successfully created an aura of energy and purpose when Fadnavis took over, with columns in the mainstream press devoted to his ‘7-point governance agenda’ and his infrastructural achievements.

Speaking at the ‘World Hindu Economic Forum’, Fadnavis promised to make Maharashtra the “most developed state” with a “trillion dollar economy”. But little was said about the state’s abysmal performance in crucial development indices.

Maharashtra ranks third from the bottom in child malnutrition. Yet, the new government dropped eggs and ragi sweets from the midday meal in government schools, citing a funds shortage. Expenditure on these made up 0.04 % of the Budget for 2024-2025, which was Rs 6.12 lakh-crore. But even this was too much to bear; schools were told to collect funds for these vital sources of protein through ‘public participation’.

The next essential scheme listed for scrapping is the Rs 10 Shiv Bhojan introduced by the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition in 2020, which was being served in public hospitals, state transport depots, and other places where the poor congregated. Even senior coalition leader Chhagan Bhujbal protested.

These were existing welfare measures that were withdrawn. Others, including an increase in the crucial Laadki Bahin amount for BPL women, were mere poll promises. As the finance minister candidly put it, now that the elections were over, it was time for financial discipline.

Farmer suicides, in which also Maharashtra leads the country, are no longer even discussed. However, a recent government study gave an insight into rural life in Maharashtra. Under the Mahayuti government, from 2023-2024, Maharashtra saw the least rate of growth in the amount spent by its rural population on essentials. In the rest of the country, the growth in rural monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) was 9%; Maharashtra’s was 3%. Will the promised ‘trillion dollar economy’ change this? Not if we are to go by the agriculture minister’s recent comparison of farmers with beggars. This is the same man convicted for fraudulently usurping homes meant for the poor.

But Fadnavis would probably rejoice at the other statistic: Maharashtra’s urban MPCE was higher than the national average, resulting in the state having the widest rural-urban divide in terms of individual spending. Yet, Mumbai’s glitter hides the reality of its slums, where 48.4% of Mumbaikars live. About 50 % of their children under five are undernourished; 70% slum dwellers get water for a few hours only through public taps, and 61% use overcrowded public toilets.

Mumbai runs on the labour of these slum dwellers, just as Maharashtra runs on the backs of its farmers. Does their constitutional right to a life with dignity feature in this government’s grandiose plans?

(Jyoti Punwani is a senior journalist.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.