Charging that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ controversial decision to set up a Prime Minister-headed high-level committee for development of Mumbai “certainly appears to be an attempt to wrest control” of the poll-bound Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday urged Narendra Modi not to accept the responsibility as such a committee “is both impractical and undesirable”.
On a day when he was discharged from the Breach Candy Hospital after a surgery and fortnight-long recuperation for a fracture in his right leg, Pawar shot off a seven-page strongly-worded letter to Modi, expressing his serious reservations about Fadnavis’ move to set up a committee, headed by the Prime Minister, for the development of Mumbai.
Maintaining that the issue arising out of Fadnavis’ move sought to affect federal nature of governance in the country, Pawar stated in his letter to Modi: “You are a strong proponent of good governance, Mr Prime Minister. May I request you in the name of good governance not to accept this responsibility for the development of Mumbai and to place it squarely where it belongs: on the shoulders of the Chief Minister, the Government and people of Maharashtra”.
Alluding to the sensitive relations between Maharashtra and Gujarat over the governance issues relating to Mumbai, Pawar said: “There are certain issues between Maharashtra and Gujarat on which both the states differ in opinions and interests. In such a situation, any proposal suggested by CM of Maharashtra will create misunderstanding between people of the two states. I will be the last person who will be happy to see this".
"The issue being of such an importance, concerning federal nature of the Republic of India, I am sharing my views and contents of this letter with some important political leaders and thinkers of Maharashtra," Pawar said.
Taking serious exception to the manner in which Fadnavis – at a meeting of chief ministers convened by the Prime Minister in New Delhi in the first week of December -- mooted a proposal to set up a PM-headed committee for Mumbai, the NCP chief said: “This statement could have been perhaps ignored had it ended there, but during the ongoing Nagpur session (of Maharashtra legislature), according to media reports, he has actually appointed such a committee headed by the Prime Minister and has defended the action on the floor of the House”.
Pawar said that the media reports had, however, not brought forth information about the constitution of the committee, its terms of reference, its powers and authority, its tenure, whether it was to have any executive or monitoring powers and what will be its role vis-a-vis nearly 150-year-old BMC.
“The local body (BMC) has a budget larger than that some of the state of the Union and is fully authorised to govern the city under the 74th amendment to the Constitution....This lack of transparency in one of the first major administrative decisions raises a number of question marks,” the NCP chief stated.
Referring to Fadnavis’ statement asking the various parties not to play politics with Mumbai’s development, Pawar said: “If I did not have such a high personal regard for the new chief minister, I would say it is he who is playing politics with Mumbai. In the run-up to the crucial local body (BMC) elections that are just two years away, this certainly appears to be an attempt to wrest control over the welfare of the city from the local body, and the local government in order to enable it to be managed by the party from Delhi. I will not suggest that, because I know Devendra is proud Maharashtrian”.
Requesting the Prime Minister to dissuade Fadnavis from going ahead with the decision to set up a PM-headed committee for Mumbai, Pawar told Modi: “You are a seasoned political leader and I believe as we grow older one of main duties is to train and guide the next generation of politicians to govern this country well. May I strongly urge to guide the chief minister of Maharashtra in his new role by explaining why setting of this committee is both impractical and undesirable”.
Stressing that Fadnavis had gone ahead and set up the committee without either keeping the PMO in the loop or taking the PM’s approval for the move, Pawar said: “ Mumbai is the very heart of the country.... For most of the past 50-odd years, Mumbai has been governed and developed by its local body and the state government and over the years has come become the social and financial hub of the country and thought leader of progress.... At no time was the Union government or the Prime Minister needed to address the city’s problems or substitute for the state government”.
“To suggest that there are no thinkers or planners or visionaries in Maharashtra to help the government solve its development issues, including the problem of the city, is to insult all of Maharashtra. I am sure that this was not the intent of the chief minister,” the NCP chief added.
Fadnavis, it may be recalled, had come under severe flak from various political parties, including the BJP’s ruling alliance partner Shiv Sena, for his proposal to set up a high-level committee ostensibly to fast-track the implementation of the development projects relating to Mumbai.
The Shiv Sena’s official mouth-piece “Saamana” had taken serious objection to Fadnavis’ proposal, saying that it amounted to handing over the control of Mumbai to the Prime Minister.
Making no bones about its opposition to any effort to hand over Mumbai’s control to the Prime Minister, the Shiv Sena had reiterated that it was against any move to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra.
“The Shiv Sena believes that Mumbai will not be separated from Maharashtra and the control of the city will only lie with the state government...We are all for development of Mumbai. But we have to ensure that the remedy does not turn out to be more dangerous than the illness itself,” the Saamana editorial had stated.
The Opposition Congress and NCP had also come down strongly against Fadnavis’ move, saying that it smacked of the ruling BJP’s designs to hand over the control of Mumbai to Prime Minister Modi.