The three-legged government in Maharashtra has published a White Paper on the major projects which the state lost in the past year. As expected, it justifies the actions taken by the government — comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena led by chief minister Eknath Shinde, both of whom have now been joined by Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party — and blames the previous government for its failure to keep the mega projects in the state for its benefit. In each of the four major cases cited in the White Paper — Vedanta Foxconn, Tata Airbus, Saffron, and the bulk drug project — it stated that the projects were not lost due to any errors of the part of this government but due to the delays in decision-making by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. The purpose of bringing out a White Paper itself is lost when such a political and pre-determined stand is presented and the government absolves itself.
The loss of the four mega projects, most moving to Gujarat, must be seen in the context of several others in the past year or so similarly shifting from Maharashtra or Mumbai. This gives wind to the Opposition charge that the ruling BJP is determined to diminish the economic stature and commercial importance of Maharashtra, especially Mumbai. Recently, a multi-crore massive diamond bourse began functioning in Surat though an earlier one in Bandra Kurla Complex is yet to get off the ground, the International Financial Services Centre was moved from BKC to Gujarat’s Gandhinagar, National Marine Police Academy was shifted from Palghar to Dwarka in Gujarat, the Patents and Trademarks office was moved to New Delhi and so on, as the Opposition has cited. The Maharashtra-Gujarat commercial war is an old one; suffice it to say that the ruling party at the Centre and in both states has reignited it.
