‘Chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai will not help drought’

Taking a swipe at Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his remarks on “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” while raising an alarm over the increasingly grim spectre of drought in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena, in its editorial in party mouthpiece, Saamana, said that merely chanting the slogan would not decrease the intensity of drought.

“It would have been better if Mr Fadnavis had given the war cry that he would provide drinking water in homes in each village of Maharashtra,” said the editorial titled “First give water to the thirsty”. It further said, “You will have to chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai, but to say that, people need to be alive”.

However, the editorial was silent on the case before the Bombay high court on the need to shift Indian Premier League (IPL) matches out of the state.

The editorial termed the deployment of police squads to protect water tanks and tankers as “shocking” and said that in many regions of the state like Marathwada, people were becoming each other’s enemies because of water shortage.

“At present, the politics over ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ is in full force. Let the chief minister’s chair go, but will chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. It is good but the children of ‘Bharat Mata’ are harried and roaming all over for water. There have been incidents where people have been at each other’s throats,” said the Sena.

The editorial said “Jai” means victory and Bharat Mata Ki Jai meant victory of its people, however if the people did not have a sip of water, their cattle were withering to death, and fields were becoming burial grounds, standing in such fields and raising ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slogans had no meaning. The Sena argued that the government could not keep people thirsty by blaming it on water policies of the previous government.

The editorial warned that industries might shut down for want of water and consequently, unemployment may rise. “This is not the Maharashtra of the dreams of Bharat Mata. Mukhya Mantri (chief minister) sitting in the chair, and giving water to Maharashtra!” it said.