Whom to vote and Why ?
Yes, surely this question arises for all of us every time elections are round the corner. Being a Mumbaikar, I cannot see the city going down the drain and the system taking us for granted for years. The card these politicians are playing to divide us between Marathi and Non-Marathi is just an eyewash for their failure to keep our city–alive! Yes, Mumbai is on the verge of getting itself killed, it has surely become an unlivable city. I have started having a very strong doubt that the agenda of every politician of Mumbai is, bring Mumbai to that level, that it collapses on its own and later it becomes another Union Territory to be governed by the Center. Break Mumbai from Maharashtra and hand it over to a NON MARATHI government seems achievable and not far. And mind you, all these politicians who are ONE from inside, my doubt soon can become a reality…
This can be seen via depleted reserves of the BMC and every other corporation running Mumbai and MMR, Development worth lakhs of crores with no maintenance, influx of new/illegal people on everyday basis, complete collapse of traffic, encroachments on roads, and the alarming rise of the pollution across the city. These people have an answer ready- please bear with us for this development of our city and making it an international standard for a few years, Mumbai will never look back again…I mean really ? In the meantime let a few thousands of us lose their life due to any of the reasons mentioned above. I am not even getting to river cleaning and rejuvenation, debris and waste management.
If now also your eyes don’t open, it’s time for you to say goodbye to our beloved city. By the way, Pune is becoming the next Bihar or Delhi or even Mumbai. The fear of law has vanished from people everywhere in our cities and everything gets ‘managed ‘ here. What alliances are we talking about here ? Ajit Pawar has the guts to shed away from Fadnavis and form an alliance with Sharad Pawar party? And BJP, don’t even get me started how wonderful ‘imports’ have controlled your party. In regard to the infighting when ticket distribution of alliances at local levels were formed, I can write essays about what happened in Sambhaji Nagar to Pune to Vidarbha… How your netas fought like cats and dogs for getting their candidates tickets has really embarrassed Fadnavis and the top management.
Yes, I am frustrated with the concept called ‘development’ in my city. In the name of development we commoners are dying due to respiratory diseases and be it an Ambani or Adani or even a Joshi, Mehta, Shah, Singh or a Gaikwad we are breathing the same toxic air in this city; no one gets to escape that! The only hope was Devendra Fadnavis amongst all, but he too is stuck between Delhi and BJP Maharashtra/Mumbai…He was the only one who thinks like us commoners but then he is surrounded by sharks, yes absolute sharks.
By the way, Thackeray brothers, you coming together and giving a last shout out for Marathi card, is really genuine, but then Thackeray brothers, promise us Mumbaikars once you come to power-every contract, every ender, will go to Marathi manoos; and all politicians, if I may say so, give ‘Marathi Manus’ an opportunity to double your wealth; if you park your money with Gujarati and Marwari, we Marathis are smart too, and have more daring too than most them…If you do so, only then I will vote for you; rest is all ‘NAATAK’ for me and the ‘BHONGA’ against North Indians, Gujarati and Non-Maharashtrians all across party lines is fake! Rich Marathi, Rich Gujrati, Rich Muslim, Rich North Indian are all welcomed here with open arms ..Yes, you people are not against a community caste or creed, be it even BJP friends–You guys are against COMMON PEOPLE and I will say it in strong words–ACROSS PARTY LINES–EVERY POLITICIAN is against ‘common’ MARATHI MANUS…
BMC and local body elections are happening in our state approximately after 8 years; Uddhav Thackeray ji, you were the CM for approximately 2.5 years; what did you do? Don’t blame Corona; your party made money from that too; BJP you got BMC for a period of 2.5 years what did you do? Yes, coastal roads, metros are a boon to us, but didn’t you think about giving us cleaner air, stopping encroachments on our footpaths, stopping people coming into our city, maintaining green patches and giving us traffic controlled cities? Aree baba, when PM Modi comes to Mumbai, Mumbai roads are washed, traffic is controlled, not a single car is parked on the road and not a single hawker is on the road…How does this happen? By the way, did I tell you, how your BJP leaders from Center to here are ‘threatening’ Builders for big ‘donations’ for BMC campaigning in public forums and meetings organised by them? Friends, either die like this or become rich by any means; In any of the Metro of Maharashtra, common people will not have any power or right in the coming years.
Ticket distribution to candidates is also another farce. Common people who have been corporators for years are promised tickets again and these same people have rotted their constituency for years. Just because a politician is powerful, his family gets tickets? What has he done for his constituency in the past so many years?
If this toxic air doesn’t kill us, traffic in my city surely kills us; for all you ‘entitled’ people claiming that development is the agenda, come and live with us in suburban Mumbai. It is a nightmare; traffic has collapsed; rickshaws have increased to few lakhs illegally, one officer was telling me when our department took action against traffic and illegal rickshaws, and cut 32,000 challans and asked for their suspension of license for 6 months, ‘then’ CM called up this same officer and said, leave it as it is my core voters…Give Police an open hand…50% of our problems will vanish in few months…every traffic policeman whom I talk to for traffic control tells me, sir with growing digging up of roads and redevelopment of 1000s of building, how does the department function smoothly?
Mumbai is gone in the hands of builders; and new builders…the old ones who once cared for the city are vanishing as none of them are coming to terms with the level of corruption that has increased at every level, hence they prefer to let this tide slow down. The third grade ones have made IAS officers their partners and in literal sense even Tenancy agreements are getting finalized in the cabins of CEOs and MDs.
I know this won’t boil your blood because who is going to bail this situation out, is what you will think…The rich and sons and daughters of these politicians and ‘system’ are already settled or planning to settle abroad; And with coming of new corporators and standing committees after the results, the rate of corruption will triple now as they will be in power after 8 long years of wait and only out-goings…
Mumbai WAS a spirit once upon a time, now, MUMBAI IS DYING!
Vikrant Meena Hemant Joshi.
