What the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has done to Maharashtra politics in the past five years was too dangerous to be allowed to continue, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said on Sunday. The Congress leader was speaking on the last day of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay’s fest, Mood Indigo, in a session titled ‘Impending reconstruction of Indian politics’.
“A new government is being tried out in Maharashtra, a kind of experiment is being tried out in the State… We have a three-party government,” he said. The Congress, he said, had never allied with the Shiv Sena before, and there was a lot of heartburn in the party initially against the alliance. “But ultimately, it was argued that what the BJP has done to State politics in the past five years is too dangerous to be allowed to be continued. It was the concept of ‘stop BJP’ at any cost. We had to choose between two, and went for the less harmful one,” said Mr. Chavan.
Asked how the three allies would come together and take a decision on implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Maharashtra, Mr. Chavan said nobody encourages illegal immigration. “It happens because of two reasons primarily — one is persecution (could be political or religious), and two, for better economic opportunities. The whole world, especially developed countries, are trying to address the issue of illegal immigration,” he said.
There should not be any discrimination on religious grounds, he said. “We will work it out. We are clear that we need a rule-based system of identifying who is an illegal immigrant, that cannot be based on discrimination against any religion.”
Mr. Chavan also commented on the country’s economic crisis. “The current leadership is too insecure to take advice. The fear is that [by distracting people’s attention] from joblessness, agriculture crisis and no investment in industries, the future of the country will be at stake…The government is in denial,” he said.
The former CM also said there was a mass hypnosis with regard to national issues. “People thought this man (the Prime Minister) talks about national security, and they forgot about all other issues like Rafale. They thought he is a strong leader and can take on Pakistan. But look at the State elections, people have rejected the BJP leadership and they are making a clear distinction between national and State issues,” he said.
On the recent protests against the NRC and Citizenship Amendment Act, Mr. Chavan said violence is bad. “We see images on television of violence happening on both sides, but I don’t think it is happening from the students’ side,” he said.
The students are protesting peacefully, and are engaging with issues, Mr. Chavan said. “But if agitations happen on such a large scale, there is always a possibility that miscreants create nuisance. The authorities overreact to these sometimes.”
