Deshmukh Govt. completes a difficult two years

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI, OCT. 18. To the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, two years of running an eight-party coalition, despite a numerically strong over-anxious Opposition snipping at his heels, is in itself an achievement. The arrangement, in which the Congress(I) and the NCP are major partners, completes two years in office today.

The key constituents of the Democratic Front (DF) had actually begun to show strains of running a coalition. At one point, the NCP, despite its mature leadership, dissociated itself from a Cabinet decision on the sensitive issue of setting up a probe against the Enron deal. To it, the timing was inappropriate. The Congress(I) couldn't hide its glee at the Government's discomfiture.

The Congress(I) too is not averse to backing out from decisions. It agreed to the move to reconsider enforcing higher rates for water - irrigation, drinking, industrial and when water is a raw material, as in mineral water production - at the coordination committee meeting of all ruling parties, because of pressure from within and from the NCP.

The NCP and the Congress(I) are aware of the limitations of coalition politics and would like to be in the driver's seat. The two have often said it was their duty to form a partnership to keep the BJP-Shiv Sena out of power. Or else, the State would have seen the saffron parties consolidate.

Battling such odds is tough for all players, each with its own agenda on which they are unwilling to compromise. The Opposition scorns at the Government. Says Mr. Gopinath Munde, BJP leader: ``How can a Government backtrack on decisions like these? Can such a Government be considered credible? I think it is all in poor taste. Disowning collective responsibility is unconstitutional. I am saddened at this situation. This is no Government.''

Mr. Deshmukh says the Government is trying to limit the damage done to the State's finances by the predecessor dispensation of the BJP and the Shiv Sena. Once it became known that the Government was almost bankrupt, investment arrivals ceased. There has been no major investment for two years.

To its credit, the Government has taken some brave decisions in two years: not paying bonus to Government employees whose salary accounts for Rs. 1,300 crores, cutting DA, banning the SIMI despite a coalition partner's objections and not budging when Enron rattled its sabre and, in fact, ceasing to buy power from it.

But, unfortunately, it is the inter-party rivalry that draws the attention of the newspapers.

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Section  : Other States
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