'Maharashtra may get a new Chief Minister soon'

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has not a single good thing to say about the BJP government in the Centre and the state labelling it a failure on all counts Nor did he mince his words when it came to the BJPrsquos poster boy Prime Minister Narendra Modi who he says is making a series of foreign trips just to make up for the fact that he had once been denied a visa because of the Gujarat riots Chavan paints his successor Devendra Fadnavis as a failure who is struggling to stay in office as he brushes under the carpet all the corruption by his ministersPrithviraj ChavanExcerptsModi a cowboyIrsquom sorry to say the PMrsquos understanding of economy is poor and his finance minister is equally dismal Mr Modi is not an economist we all know But in the past two years he should have got enough understanding of the basics of economy Instead he is doubling up in foreign affairs and touring foreign counties Sadly there is abject failure in our foreign policy You cannot do a cowboy policy wherein you suddenly get up and visit Pakistan You announce aid to some country and do all possible tricksHogging publicity abroadModi goes to foreign countries and meets Indians there just to hog popularity He doesnrsquot go there to win new friends You must know that he was not allowed visa to many countries because of the Gujarat riots I think is he making up for that by visiting as many countries as he can while he is PM What is unfortunate is that Modi doesnrsquot acknowledge that his predecessor Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation for what Modi claims to have been doing for foreign affairsTherersquos more to Rajanrsquos exitGetting Raghuram Rajan one of the brighest young economists in the world as our RBI governor was a big victory for Manmohan Singh He is still one of the best today He is a little outspoken and speaks his mind which the PM and FM might not have liked They expected him to work like an average babu But I think therersquos something more to his exit Did he go at the behest of large bank defaulters It will be interesting to see who replaces him I strongly feel that only an upright person will work wonders in that position This government is smart in masking its failures Fearing a bad market after Rajanrsquos exit it announced an FDI policy to manage the market Similarly after the Bihar debacle it tried to recover the market by announcing some packageMake in India Itrsquos all jumlaAchieving growth and bringing in lsquoachhe dinrsquo is just a jumla Make in India is a falsehood I have asked our CM Devendra Fadnavis to give me the names of investors who inked MoUs with the government during the Make in India week He hasnrsquot given me any list not even after I applied under the Right To Information Act They donrsquot want me to know who will create 13 lakh jobs in Maharashtra by investing Rs 8 lakh crore I believe itrsquos yet another jumla No new industry has come Exports are down nothing is working Yet they manage the figures which experts have started questioning nowAgricultural failureThe BJP proved disastrous not only in the Centre but also in Maharashtra where the highest ever number of farmer suicides were recorded in the past 16 months The PM has no answer and even the Maharashtra CM has nothing to say on this failure Their talk of doubling agriculture is farfetched because they are not able to give farmers price for their produce and they are not offering loan waivers to distressed farmers eitherWater crisis mishandledMaharashtra governmentrsquos drought management has created a negative impression in investors Marathwada once a destination for investors has become a big repellant due to the water crisis The Fadnavis government denied water to industries it stopped water supply to breweries Who would want to invest in Marathwada in future The BJP government in the Centre and State have botched up water conservation by using techiniques that are harmful in long term They are digging rivers which will affect recharging of water sources in the long termSmart City scheme is wrongThey are giving Rs 100 crore to a smaller town and the same amount a metro like Mumbai What is this The government should invest in statecontrolled corporations to do jobs like solid waste management jobs that contractors are not willing to do efficientlyBullet train a Tughlaqbrained ideaHow can anyone think a bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is a top priority at this stage It is like a move by Muhammad Tughlaq a Turkish sultan of Delhi 13251351 who historians described as a lunatic for his strange and impulsive decisions that caused great trouble to the people The bullet train will not benefit Mumbai and Mahaashtra at all Irsquom completely opposed to the idea The government is not coming clean on how it intends to raise funds for this mega projectSaffron agendaThe BJP is out to saffronise everything Irsquom told that the party is heading towards making Hindutva its agenda They are changing education to fit their agenda as well Our diversity is at stake See what they are doing through yoga day ban on beef and all Hindu things that are heaped on usSena may quit state govtI strongly believe that the Sena will pull out of the state government any time before the BMC polls Irsquom not sure when but the Sena should start working as the official opposition as they did in 2014 before joining the minority government They have the numbers and they can have their opposition leader instead of the Congressrsquos current opposition leader in the Assembly The Sena doesnrsquot want to contest Assembly polls again This is the most likely scenario The Senarsquos completing 50 years of existence is a great achievement thanks to Balasaheb Thackeray However has the Senarsquos current leadership filled Balsahebrsquos shoes Can it speak for the Marathi peopleNCP to demand a new CMOnce the BJP is on its own NCP will come into the picture It will take centrestage in an arrangement to stabilise the BJPrsquos government which will face a minority crisis after the Senarsquos exit However NCP may want the current CM changed in return The NCP would want a friendly CM as their leadership doesnrsquot like FadnavisBlame game with NCPI donrsquot know why the NCP leadership is blaming me for the Assembly defeat in Maharashtra In fact it was a series of corruption scandals in Maharashtra and Delhi that took us down There was also the Modi factor which has since vanishedOn battling corruption as CMI decided to work in a particular manner in view of the change of leadership in the wake of the Adarsh scam I wanted to regain the confidence of the people and I did it quite successfully I corrected the statersquos apex cooperative bank and I sought clarity in irrigation department though I had limitations I didnrsquot have the mandate to sack corrupt ministers from NCP because I was heading a coalition government In fact there were two governments that ran parallel to each other One was headed by me and the other was led by Ajit Pawar The allegation that I initiated inquiries against Chhagan Bhujbal and Ajit Pawar is completely wrong It was the then home minister late RR Patil also of NCP who signed the orders Those files never came to meCongress be aggressiveCM Fadnavis is a big failure He is trying to push every corruption case under the carpet His only job is to survive in office All corruption cases in his government are fit to go to the court and the Congress must take initiative in taking a legal course The BJP did it against all our top leaders The goodiegoodie approach towards the BJP government will not do For instance Eknath Khadse getting calls from Dawoodrsquos wife is very serious He is the first sitting Cabinet minister whose case was given to the AntiTerror Squad for investigations This directive of the CM has some connotations Why the ATS The Congress must move court in this matter Irsquom told that Fadnavis is not keen on taking Khadse back in the Cabinet but other party leaders are very keenOn Kamatrsquos resignationMy party colleague Gurudas Kamatrsquos decision of quitting the party could have been avoided The party national general secretary Mohan Prakash should have managed the issue before it escalated I believe that some arrangement will be made to retain Kamat and he should be given a wider space to work in Mumbai ahead of BMC election When we talk of loyalists the party has to keep a delicate balance of loyalists and other leaders who are brought in from other parties The party needs to accommodate new people but putting new entrants in charge is not correct I also feel that the loyalists will stay with the party but the others may move out seeking greener pastures