Aditi Phadnis: Worrisome signals from Maharashtra

The state is seeing its worst-ever drought; it has a new Commissioner who doesn't seem to be in charge of the most important case the state has seen in recent months

Some strange things are happening in Maharashtra. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is in Japan, unveiling a statue of Dr B R Ambedkar at the Koyasan University. Facebook is full of pictures of Fadnavis wearing an orange pheta (the Maharashtrian turban) in the midst of a boisterous crowd of Indians and some staid-looking Japanese. He looks happy. He should. This is his sixth foreign visit in the nine or so months that he has been chief minister. His visit to the United States was probably the most controversial: he sought to take a delegation of 79 with him, which was later pruned to a more reasonable figure.

Just before leaving for Japan, Fadnavis is reported to have signed the papers shifting Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria to head the Home Guards. One would have thought the change of job meant Maria’s job description would change too: that he would no longer be in charge of the Sheena Bora murder case. But eight hours after the CM left Mumbai and had nearly reached Japan, we were told through a WhatsApp message from the chief secretary (home) that the charge of investigating the murder case would remain with Maria. Did the CM decide this? When? In transit? How did he communicate this to the bureaucrat? And what is the new police commissioner supposed to do ? Isn’t he the new boss? Will his new team respect him if every policeman in the state knows the CM didn’t trust him with the most important case Maharashtra has seen in recent months? Grace doesn’t come easily to most politicians.

Maria is now the most important and sought-after man in Maharashtra. Meanwhile a whisper campaign has started in Mumbai. There’s the small matter of Rs 500 crore which has gone missing, invested in Indrani Mukerjea’s business by important people, including a top industrial house, some diamond merchants and a fund housed in a south-east Asian country. There are rumours that the police got wind of the murder more than a month ago and very very quietly, tried to determine where the money, invested in a company allegedly controlled by Bora, had gone. What we are hearing now are facts known to them weeks ago. Were other parties involved in the investment ? Maybe some politicians?

Maharashtra is seeing its worst-ever drought. There has been some return rain in Vidarbha and Marathwada. But the Solapur reservoir, which supplies water to entire south Maharashtra, has a water level of zero. The Jayakwadi reservoir has a negative water level — which means even the underground aquifers have dried up. Even if it pours, the reservoirs are unlikely to fill up. No doubt the CM will address the matter on a war footing when he returns from Japan.

Or maybe he won’t, and will leave the whole thing to his colleague Eknath Khadse, the man in charge of the revenue, agriculture and drought management portfolios. It is common knowledge that Fadnavis and Khadse are not on talking terms. Within 48 hours of Fadnavis becoming CM, Khadse issued a statement saying a non-Brahmin should have been chief minister. When Fadnavis reshuffled officers, Khadse was incandescent with rage and stayed away from a cabinet meeting. For the record, both deny any differences. The recent self goal of banning the sale of meat during a Jain festival will only strengthen Khadse and others that it is a government led by a Brahmin agenda.

Then there is the issue of the corruption enquiry in the irrigation department headed by the previous irrigation minister, Ajit Pawar. The irrigation scam is a matter Fadnavis had flagged loudly and energetically during the election campaign. Irregularities in awarding the contract and the construction of a dam in Raigad had led Aam Aadmi Party leader Mayank Gandhi and others to file an appeal, seeking a court-monitored enquiry. You would have thought the state government would have been happy, in the interests of justice, to hand over the supervision of the enquiry to the court. Wrong. The state government insisted it had already ordered an ‘open’ enquiry by the Anti Corruption Bureau. The Bench acerbically observed: “It  is the common perception that if influential people are involved, then the investigating agency work slows down.” Why is the state government so keen to control the direction of the probe?

Fadnavis is inexperienced. He needs help. And posting interns as officers on special duty with every minister is not the answer.