Author: Anil Nair in Mumbai
Publication: Organiser
Date: October 17, 2004
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=46&page=2
The Election Commission intervened
to keep politics out of the Ganesh Puja in Maharashtra. It banned cassettes
and CDs of the Shiv Sena, citing violations of the code of conduct. Uma
Bharti's Tiranga yatra was watched by the EC with a magnifying glass. Yet,
when the Congress-NCP committed a serious violation-supplying free electricity
to farmers just 10 days before the election, paying over Rs 500 crore to
the MSEB for it, the "watch dog" is not barking, leave alone bite.
Free power has become a reality
in Maharashtra in the middle of election campaign. Strange, but it's true.
On October 2, Maharashtra Chief Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, as promised,
delivered two cheques to the office of Maharashtra State Electricity Board
(MSEB) totally amounting to Rs 558 crore. For what? Well, for providing
free power to the farmers. The MSEB spokesman confirmed not just the receipt
of the cheques but also the fact that the Board had started issuing zero
bills to the farmers for the next three months. The next day the free power
supply story was widely reported in the regional press all over Maharashtra.
But how could this happen? Is there no election code of conduct, which
by all measure, is sacrosanct? How could the government release the funds
on October 2, just 10 days before the elections? Well, the sauce for the
goose does not seem to be sauce for the gander.
The MSEB spokesman also explained
that out of the total Rs 558 crore, Rs 403 crore is for free power supply
to farmers in the state, while Rs 8 crore is for providing subsidised electricity
to Mulla-Parva Co-operative Society. The rest Rs 155 crore was meant for
the Board to adopt the accelerated power development pro-gramme (APDP)
in the state, essentially for reforms in the sector. Even this payment
to MSEB was delayed to the last minute because the new regulatory authority,
viz., Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) was not ready
to play ball with the state government over free power sops for farmers.
On September 23 MERC had rejected
the state government proposal for entering into book adjustment with MSEB
for Rs 395 crore as the board already owes it Rs 600 crore. There are two
aspects to be noted here. First, that the government with impunity released
the funds for the 'free power to the farmers' election promise. Second,
the reforms in power sector have been jeopardised with the state government
choosing to give away free power to farmers.
But the discrepancy in the implementation
of the code of conduct is not limited to this issue. When Shri Raj Thackeray,
leader of Shiv Sena, brought out a campaign video on the Mumbai bomb blasts
last week, notices were promptly issued to curb any use of 'violent audio-visual'
stream to influence voters. But just a few months ago, during the general
elections, the video CD made on Gujarat riots was widely used and distributed
in almost every Muslim constituency, even in Kerala and Bihar. Wonder,
why there wasn't the same alacrity in banning the Gujarat CD? Former Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee even listed the Gujarat CD to be one of the
main causes for the defeat of the NDA.
The most brazen attempt at influencing
the voters by the church was during the last general elections and Goa
state Assembly elections. The church had repeatedly come out with statements
asking Christians not to vote for BJP, and it was given wide coverage by
the media. Only the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Maharashtra is sought
to be kept out of the ambit of political gamesmanship. As the Freddie Mercury's
song goes: ".strange but it's true!".
