Thackeray raps Sena minister once again

The immediate cause of Thackeray’s ire was the detention of more than a dozen Shiv Sena workers for allegedly ransacking the office of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Though all the 14 Sena workers specifically stated that they were not even remotely linked with the incident, they were arrested by the police.

Thackeray’s another grouse, as he pointed it out to the Chief Minister, was that though he was the main architect of the alliance government, not a single directiveissued by him was implemented in letter and spirit.

The propriety of his demands aside, Thackeray does have a point on this count. Almost all his pronouncements, including those on providing free power to farmers, hiking cotton prices and assurances to striking junior college teachers have not been translated into action by the government.

After the alliance government came to power, it had announced two major populist programmes — free houses to 40 lakh slumdwellers and employment to 27 lakh jobless youths. However, despite being on the verge of completing four years in office, its performance on these two fronts is shockingly poor.

On the issues of free power and pending demand of the teachers, Thackeray had to face embarrassment as his own government did not take any steps to implement the directive.

While his promise to farmers was not delivered following objections raised by Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, who also holds the energy portfolio, Thackeray’s assurance to striking teachers alsowent awaste as Munde skipped the crucial cabinet meeting which was to decide on the issue.

In today’s two-hour long interaction, the cabinet members once again tried to blame it all on the non-cooperation from bureaucracy but Thackerya did not buy their contention. Instead, he put the onus on the minister by saying that it was their responsibility to make the bureaucracy work.

Pinning the minsters down further, Thackeray pointed out that while there were charges of corruption and non-performance against Shiv Sena ministers, their BJP counterparts had a clean image.

“Thackeray feels that it was the responsibility of Manohar Joshi to get a cabinet nod for free power to the farmers as well as revised pay scales for the teachers. However, apparently, the Chief Minister was unable to implement the directive of Thackeray,” one Sena Minister pointed out.

Secondly, the Minister said the alliance government failed to address the problems of the textile workers. “In the Vachan Nama, we had promised toresolve their dispute. However, owing to pressure from the BJP, no decision could be taken,” the Minister said.

When asked if Thackeray will replace Manohar Joshi, the Minister declined to comment, saying, it was the prerogative of the Sena supremo.