MVA Government's ‘Silence’ on Certain ‘Sensitive’ Issues Baffles Supporters

Mumbai: A few years ago, when the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government was ruling Maharashtra, Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) chief spokesperson Nawab Malik had levelled serious allegations against the then Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) headed by  Devendra Fadnavis.

Alleging an information technology (IT) scam, Malik had mentioned the name of Kaustubh Dhavase, who was officer on special duty (OSD) in the CMO, and had even referred to him as  'Digital Dalal'  (Digital Agent), citing a number of reasons, including alleged manipulation of a few IT tenders.

At that time, chief minister Fadnavis was in-charge of the IT ministry. Malik had assured a probe into the matter if his party was voted to power. At present, Malik is a minister in  the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government, but there has not been a single mention about the promised probe into the allegations made in past.

During the Fadnavis days, Congress, too, levelled allegations regarding irregularities in the CIDCO land scam. The irrigation project had affected the people of Satara district who had been given land in Navi Mumbai. Almost a year has passed since the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government has been in power, but no probe has been initiated into the case.

There are multiple other decisions of the BJP-led Fadnavis government that were questioned by the then Opposition Congress and NCP. For instance , tenders and land acquisition in Samriddhi Mahamarg, alleged scams in mid-day meals, the controversial tur dal procurement, cancellation and re-tendering of 11 irrigation projects, MP Mill compound development scam, controversial delay in results of third year students of Mumbai university and so on. These decisions were under the scanner and serious questions had been raised then. Yet again, no investigation has been announced in any of these cases.

The Fadnavis government was also targeted by Congress and NCP for using controversial Israeli spyware 'pegasus' against the political and ideological opponents of BJP. Pegasus is used to hack mobile phones for spying purposes. It was even said that during Fadnavis government, a few officers from the state's information and publicity department had visited Israel. But the MVA government has not made any effort to take the matter to its logical conclusion. 

This inaction by the MVA government is creating some discontent among their supporters as well as within the members of the three ruling parties – Sena-NCP-Congress. In the Sushant Singh Rajput case, too, several supporters of the MVA government feel that the leadership lacks courage to take on BJP. "It seems that leaders are not ready to take BJP head on. They think by saving their own skin, they will be able to survive for five years. Also, there is no united effort to deal with people's issues by probing the alleged scams of BJP," said a young Congress MLA from Western Maharashtra.

The MVA government has been under constant media fire as well as under a coordinated attack by BJP since it came to power. Of late, these attacks have increased manifold.  From the spread of coronavirus to the Palghar incident of mob lynching to the Sushant Singh Rajput death controversy, BJP is aggressively trying to portray the MVA government as a “failure”. But apart from some attempts to clear the air, the MVA government is doing nothing. And the fact that it has not been aggressive and is also not re- opening old cases, half of which are actually allegations made by their leaders, is adding to this perception.

A cabinet minister belonging to Shiv Sena said he was amused to see how his government had “gone silent” in recent times. "Actually there is no reason to keep mum. Neither on corona nor on the Sushant Singh issue. The state government is coming across as an honest one. Yet,  this silence on its part is disturbing. All the senior leaders are not reacting to allegations neither are they coming forth with political attacks. Why?" he said.