The guilty, whether in the case of the Borivali-Thane twin tunnel, the BMC slum sanitation or the Ladki Bahin Scheme, should be punished

In the run-up to the 2014 legislative assembly elections in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party had successfully run a campaign asking a question: kuthe neun thevla aahe majha Maharashtra (Where have you taken my Maharashtra?).

As a part of the campaign, the BJP raised questions about inflation, corruption and the crime rate in the state. The campaign was successful in the sense that the electorate in the state voted the BJP to power. Today, a similar situation has arisen in the state, given the developments on several fronts, like the safety of women, rising crimes, cases of alleged corruption and the language used by those in power. 

Prudent people in Maharashtra, who are now in an abysmal minority, were shocked to hear Prem Shukla, national spokesperson of the BJP, abuse the mother of the national spokesperson of the Congress during a live debate on a leading television channel. Shukla, who can be said to be a Mumbaikar, as he once was the editor of a Hindi eveninger in Mumbai, was not in a position to defend his party on the charges made by Rajput. 

A tongue-tied Shukla suddenly told Rajput that the latter’s mother is a prostitute. By his statement, Shukla displayed his misogynistic attitude.  While the anchor of the show said that such language would not be allowed, he failed to throw Shukla out of the show. While Rajput displayed intellectual maturity by asking Shukla why he was abusing his mother, who is dead, it was shocking that no BJP leader reprimanded Shukla for his remark, which needs to be condemned in the strongest words.  On the issue of the status of women in the state, the State Commission for Women has become a toothless body, and the post of the chairperson of the commission is merely decorative. 

The commission and its chairperson, Rupali Chakankar, failed to take appropriate action on the complaint of the elder daughter-in-law of the Hagawane family, who had complained of harassment and assaults on her by her in-laws, but except for forwarding the complaint to the Pune rural police, no action was taken by the commission. After Vaishali, the younger daughter-in-law of the family, committed suicide, unable to bear the assaults and harassment by her husband and in-laws, Chakankar wrote to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, seeking a probe into the delay by the police to act on the complaint. 

Chakankar needs to explain why she and the commission failed to take appropriate action on the complaint with proper follow-up, which might have prevented Vaishali from taking her life. Chakankar has made the post decorative. A delegation of Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising the opposition parties Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) and Congress, called on the governor, seeking the removal of Chakankar from her post. Instead of feeling guilty or sorry for her failure to deliver justice to the Hagawane daughters-in-law, she argued that she was appointed to the post by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government too and continues to stick to the post like a leech. 

Yet another issue before the state is regarding some of the decisions of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, taken either when he was the chief minister or in his current capacity, that have come under the scanner. Some months ago, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) ordered an inquiry into the allegations of corruption in the Jalna Housing project, which was scrapped in 2020 and was revived in 2023 under Shinde’s Urban Development Department.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) annulled a tender related to slum sanitation and waste collection, which was issued under Shinde’s directive. The tender was challenged in court, leading to its cancellation due to procedural delays and concerns over favouritism.

The latest blow to Shinde and embarrassment to the Fadnavis-led government is the Supreme Court case involving Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and the Maharashtra government, with L&T challenging its disqualification from bidding on two major Mumbai infrastructure projects worth Rs 14,000 crore, one of which is the Borivali-Thane underground twin tunnel. 

L&T argued in the apex court that its technical bid was rejected without proper communication and its financial bid was never opened, leading to an unfair selection process. The leading infrastructure company claimed that the winning bidder, Megha Engineering, had submitted a bid of Rs 3,100 crore higher than L&T’s yet was awarded the contract. While the Bombay High Court had rejected L&T’s plea, the Supreme Court warned MMRDA that if it did not consider re-tendering, the bidding process could be halted.

The Chief Justice of India expressed shock at L&T’s exclusion, especially given its track record, including the Delhi Central Vista project. The court questioned why a higher-cost bidder was chosen, raising concerns about the misuse of taxpayer money. Following the Supreme Court’s intervention, the Maharashtra government scrapped the tender, citing the need for greater transparency.

Yet another issue that is in the limelight is the Ladki Bahin Yojana, under which women are given Rs 1,500 per month. The scheme was announced by Eknath Shinde on the eve of legislative assembly elections when he was the chief minister. The move was obviously to secure women’s votes to win the elections.  

It has now come to light, after the scrutiny of documents of some of the beneficiaries, that over 2,000 of them do not qualify for the scheme, and some of them are government employees. It is most likely that more such beneficiaries would be identified if all the documents were verified.

Fadnavis should let the people of the state know what action he is going to take on all these issues. The guilty, whether in the case of the Borivali-Thane twin tunnel, the Jalna Housing Project, the BMC slum sanitation or the Ladki Bahin Scheme, should be punished. Chakankar, who has failed miserably to help women, should be replaced by a more efficient woman to head the commission. Luckily for Fadnavis, Kirit Somaiya will not raise his voice when it comes to any of these issues.