Slamming Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the politics of nationalism centred around Bharat Mata Ki Jai, the Shiv Sena on Thursday asked Mr Fadnavis to get down to the business of governance and ensure that Maharashtra’s parched areas get water.
Mocking Mr Fadnavis’s speech in the Assembly, where he said he was willing to sacrifice the post of Chief Minister but would proudly chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai¸ an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana suggested it would have been more appropriate if Mr Fadnavis had said that he would relinquish power if every village and every house in the state did not get drinking water.
Referring to the imposition of Section 144 of the IPC to control violence over water in parts of the Marathawada region, the editorial said it was shocking to see parts of the region getting water once in 40 days, and images of police personnel guarding water tanks. “If youths of Marathawada pick up weapons and take to violence over water, then the slogan of Bharat Mata Ki Jai will be meaningless. Bharat Mata can be happy only if people are happy. But, people don’t have enough to drink, the cattle are dying of thirst, and farms have become graveyards. In these graveyards, even if someone chants the nationalistic slogan, it will not excite Bharat Mata.”
The editorial continued, “The previous Congress-NCP government’s water management policies may have gone wrong, but now the power is in your hands. You cannot blame the previous government, and keep people thirsty … Drought has taken a turn for the worse in Marathawada and north Maharashtra, and empty sloganeering of Bharat Mata Ki Jai will not reduce the severity of the drought.”
“Those staying in the country will have to chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai, but for that people have to be alive. In Marathawada, human beings have become the enemies of their fellow human beings. This is not the Maharashtra of Bharat Mata’s dreams. Chief Minister, sit on the chair, and give water to Maharashra!”
