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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Why Shiv Sena is indulging in double speak over Mumbai-Nagpur expressway project
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Why Shiv Sena is indulging in double speak over Mumbai-Nagpur expressway project

Some Shiv Sena functionaries and even BJP leaders say the double-speak is in keeping with Sena's policy of tactical support to BJP-led government in Maharashtra

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said the party was not against the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway project but its ‘coercive implementation’. Photo: MintPremium
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said the party was not against the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway project but its ‘coercive implementation’. Photo: Mint

Mumbai: Last week, Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde signed the first set of sale deeds for land acquired for the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway project. Shinde is in charge of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corp., the nodal agency for the Rs46,000 crore project that needs around 10,000 hectares of land.

Two days after Shinde signed the deeds, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray called a press conference where he reiterated his party’s opposition to the project if “it was imposed on the farmers". Thackeray said the Sena was not against the project but its “coercive implementation".

Shiv Sena’s double-speak on the project has been criticised by farmers’ organisations, the Congress party, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as “hypocrisy". But Sena functionaries and even some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders say the double-speak is in keeping with the Sena policy of tactical support to the BJP-led coalition government.

“Congress, NCP, and some farmers’ groups that have come up recently have criticised us saying that we are hypocrites who sit in government and yet criticise a project that the government is pushing for. But they don’t seem to have realised the strategic importance of this position. We don’t want to be seen as anti-development. Nor do we want farmers to believe that our support to the project is unqualified," said a senior Shiv Sena leader and minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government, requesting anonymity.

A BJP functionary, who did not wish to be named, said the Sena’s position on the expressway is no different from its “critical posturing" on several other issues. “There has not been a single issue in two-and-a-half years of this government on which Shiv Sena has unequivocally supported the government. It is a well-thought-out strategy to occupy the vacant opposition space and convey the impression of a party that is on the ground with people," he said.

The functionary added that the Sena was also keen to make amends for its “delayed push" for a farm loan waiver. “In April, the Congress and NCP launched their Sangharsha Yatra to demand a loan waiver. Shiv Sena had demanded loan waiver but hadn’t hit the streets. It was a tactical loss," the BJP functionary said.

Another reason the Sena is hedging its position on the expressway is that much of the opposition to the project is coming from farmers in Ahmednagar, Nashik, and Thane districts—regions where the Sena is in direct contest with the BJP, NCP and Congress. The Sena and BJP functionaries cited above said that the recent farm unrest in Maharashtra was largely centred in these districts.

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Published: 21 Jul 2017, 08:55 AM IST
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