Bhujbal’s histrionics deprive CM of limelight

Later talking to press persons, Bhujbal claimed Joshi was a victim of his own law. “The chief minister replied in negative when Council Chairperson Jayantrao Tilak asked him whether anybody should be allowed to talk after I finished. He said that he alone would talk on behalf of the ruling party,” said Bhujbal. “I wonder if it is a violation when the chief minister answers my charges in a press conference instead of in the Council,” he added.

Joshi even told the Chair that he would not continue the discussion tomorrow as he would not “have the time”. Hence mediapersons, who had thronged at the Council’s press gallery to listen to Bhujbal’s histrionics, were called for a meet in the chief minister’s room.

Using exaggeration, humour and biting sarcasm, Bhujbal made his point against the demolition drives being undertaken by the state government in the monsoon. In fact, so effective was he in his speech that even Joshi, who was copiously taking notes, was at times seen laughing at his jabs.

The Congress leader, visibly enthusiastic after leading a successful morcha against the state government’s anti-slum dwellers drive yesterday, began his attack on the Sena led government’s “Hindu Raj” claiming that it had actually led to the suicide of a sadhu at Bandra. Quoting from a letter written by the deceased Mahant Puri of Bandra, who committed suicide on May 17, Bhujbal claimed the baba was tired of the daily harassment by Shiv Sena shakha pramukh Tukaram Shelar.

Bhujbal alleged that land was the bone of contention between the sadhu and Shiv Sena, which was backing a local hotel owner who wanted a freeway to the sea. “So what if there is a temple on the way of the development? So what if it is around 300 years old? When the Sena decides it wants something, it gets it done,” taunted Bhujbal.

Exemplifying the state government’s callous attitude towards slum dwellers, he pointed out to the incident in which slums of Ambedkar Nagar, Colaba had mysteriously caught fire during a demolition in the last session in March. He accused the government of demolishing the slums to facilitate a helipad to be built by Dhirubhai Ambani, head of Reliance Industries. He then turned his attention on the recent demolitions of slums in Babrekar Nagar, Kandivili (West) where 7000 hutments were razed to the ground even though many of them were staying there before January 1, 1995 — the state government’s cut off date for tolerating such structures.

“None of them were Bangladeshis,” he said referring to Saamna reports of a `mini Bangladesh’ being set up at the place. “Twenty-five per cent of them were Maharashtrians and 85 per cent, Hindus. If at all they were Bangladeshis, why didn’t the state government send them back to the country?” he asked.

He charged that the demolition drives were part of the state government’s conspiracy following the failure of its much advertised Slum Redevelopment Scheme (SRS). “The SRS involved a lot of under hand dealings, whereby the already slim profit of the builders in a depressed real estate market, would reduce further. So the government decided to clear slums and give the land to the builder,” he charged. He called it the Zhopu scheme (as its acronym would read in Marathi, which also means `sleeping’).

The chief minister on his part was only able to say that the helipad at Colaba had nothing to do with Ambani and would be as much of a help to the common people, as to the rich. Later at a press conference, he clarified that the slums at Babrekar Nagar were being regularly demolished since 1994. “In 1994, the slums were demolished 31 times, 30 times in 1995, 35 times in 1996, and 12 times in 1997. So the charge that the slums were being demolished only during monsoon is wrong,” he said.