New Delhi: BJP lawmaker Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe on Wednesday took a dig at the Shiv Sena-led coalition government in Maharashtra and said the Uddhav Thackeray regime is itself a “symbol of illegal construction”.
“There was a bulldozer used against an alleged illegal construction….this government is a symbol of illegal construction. Yeh Sarkar hi avaidh nirmaan ka pratik hae,” Dr Sahasrabuddhe said in Rajya Sabha while participating in a debate on the Covid19 situation in the country.
Amid objections from the opposition bench including from Sena, Deputy Chairman Mr Harivansh Narayan Singh urged the ruling party member to confine himself to speak on the subject.
Just as opposition members were raising voices, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal made a brief intervention and said, “we also have lung power” – and thus reminded the opposition members that the ruling party member (Dr Vinay) should be allowed to make his observation.
The BJP member was critical of the manner some states have indulged in ‘playing games’ with the process of Lockdown.
“I can take names of many states, and some people would only feel excited if I say, there are such states in east of India or some in south and also elsewhere,” he said perhaps in reference to periodical Lockdowns enforced in states like West Bengal. “kayi rajyaon haen jinhoney Lockdown ke saath khilawar ki (Some states have just played games in the name of Lockdown),” the senior lawmaker alleged.
In Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal, complete Lockdown are announced “twice a week”, and sometime these could be Thursday and Saturday, and sometimes it could be other days.
In reference to Maharashtra, Dr Sahasrabuddhe again said there was “politics of transfer” and went onto add – “some officers are transferred at 2 pm, and by 4 pm they get another order stating that your previous transfer order has been withdrawn”.
“There must be seriousness…..,” Dr Sahasrabuddhe underlined and went on to mock at the Sena-NCP-Congress regime stating “How could the seriousness come with this regime. This govt in Maharashtra is not being run from the Mantralaya, but they are running it from homes”.
“Are you running a government or playing with the people?” he wondered.
In Maharashtra, he further said there are about 7000 vacant slots of doctors and other medical staff, but no adequate step has been taken to fill them.
“These raise the issue of seriousness…and there are also contradictions in figures of Covid19 cases and fatalities from the state government and municipal bodies,” he alleged.
The BJP MP claimed that even Congress-minded poets these days wonder – “yeh mantralay mein kab jaenge (When will this government start functioning effectively from the Mantralaya)”.
“Those who worked to bring this government in power (in the western state) should do soul searching,” he said adding – they will also realise “what have we done”.
During the debate, Trinamool Congress MP, Derek-O-Brien was critical of the centre.
At one point, he even said, “You must not use pandemic to turn democracy into an autocratic country”.
He also said the Modi government has not been able to take opposition-ruled states on board in leading the country’s fight against the pandemic.
