Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pressing for One Nation, One Election, going by the way the Maharashtra government has been functioning over the last few weeks, many in the state would not only oppose such a move, but would want the conduction of elections more frequently. Some of them may also welcome the reduction in the five-year period for a government to be in power.
This is because, with the elections round the corner, the government has gone into a frenzy, announcing populist schemes, in an effort to woo voters from various sections of the society.
Going by the way people votes, it gives an impression that issues of national development and the welfare of the society, do not matter to the voters, but their decisions to vote are based on caste factors and doles, offered by those in power. These doles are called revadi by Prime Minister Modi, when they are offered by others.
The Maharashtra government started the announcements of doles, with the introduction of the ladki bahin scheme to win over women in the state. This was followed by paid internship programmes for men.
That such schemes are announced with an eye on the elections, rather than with for the benefit of the masses, is clear from two factors. First being the introduction of the schemes when the elections have approached, rather than making the announcements on coming to power over two years ago.
The second factor is the threats issued by some leaders of the ruling alliance, to the beneficiaries of the ladki bahin scheme, that if they do not vote for the ruling alliance, the money disbursed to them would be taken back. A large section of the public in the state being innocent and gullible, is bound to believe the threat and will vote for the ruling alliance.
Political parties and their candidates, across the board are guilty of using unfair means to influence the voters and there have been cases, were huge amounts of money is spent to influence the voters. More often than not, this money is part of the ill-gotten wealth.
Cases of sarees being distributed to women to win their votes, have come to light in different states. The men are known to be offered liquor. But smarter politicians and their advisors have learnt to use public funds to distribute goodies to the voters. This way, they not only save funds, but also are not pulled up by the Election Commission of India, as such goodies come from the state exchequer, as part of schemes.
The ruling alliance in Maharashtra, has come up with a novel idea of distributing sarees using public money. In some areas, women have complained about the quality of the sarees and in Palghar, women made a bonfire of the sarees, demanding water in their villages and jobs for the youth. A similar situation was seen in another district, where the sarees were returned.
These women seem to have seen through the gimmicks by the ruling alliance. They have followed the Arabic saying that if you give fish to a person today, he will come back for another the next day, but if you teach him to fish, he will fetch it for himself.
Instead of appreciating the concern of the women over water and jobs, a minister, who was distributing the sarees, reacted by saying that the women involved in such acts are bogus, showing his contempt for those who challenge him or the government.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is like a bad student in school, who does not study throughout the year and on the eve of the exams, burns the mid night lamp. Such students often fall ill, due to the stress they take of appearing for the exams. This is what happened to Shinde. He fell ill, so the cabinet meeting had to be postponed from Wednesday to Thursday, this being the last cabinet meeting of the Shinde-led government, before the code of conduct comes into effect. Holding the meeting was very important, as he wanted to get so many things cleared.
According to reports, the cabinet cleared 80 items in one meeting. With so many issues being handled in a meeting, which did not last for several hours, it is clear that most of the decisions have been taken without a discussion on them, which means without application of mind by the members of the cabinet, presuming that it is not the case on other occasions. It is doubtful that the ministers, including Shinde, would remember all the decisions taken in this meeting. It is also reported that apart from the 80 decisions taken on Thursday, another 100 decisions have been taken over the last couple of weeks. A majority of the decisions have been taken to appease some section of the society or the other. These include the setting up of boards for different communities, in an effort to win their support.
The ministers have been clearing files at a speed that can be matched only by artificial intelligence. Shiv Sena (UBT)’s firebrand leader Sushma Andhare had calculated recently, going by the claims made about clearance of files by Shinde, that the latter had cleared more than one file per second!
If that is true, it would either mean that the Chief Minister had not read the files or he is a super genius. The latter possibility is hard to believe.
The government is blessed not to have a hostile press, as Napoleon had said, “Four hostile newspapers are to be more feared than a thousand bayonets.” Not wanting to take chances, the government has also decided to form a board for journalists, though the purpose of the board is not clear yet.
The author is a senior journalist and media trainer. He tweets at @a_mokashi
