As Bordikar, Shirsat stoke row, CM jumps to their defence: Ministers sometimes speak jokingly

Indian Express

4 hours ago

EVEN as two more state ministers landed in controversy in the last two days, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who last week had warned ministers against making controversial statements, on Sunday defended his cabinet colleagues.
As videos of the two ministers — Sanjay Shirsat from Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Meghna Bordikar from BJP — surfaced, Fadnavis jumped to their defence, stating ministers in their speeches sometimes speak jokingly.
'If we make an issue out of everything, it won't be appropriate,' the chief minister said.
As for Social Justice Minister Sanjay Shirsat, Fadnavis said, 'I don't think what Shirsat said is wrong.' Regarding Bordikar, Fadnavis said, 'I have spoken to her and she told me that the media has not shown her complete statement. I will be discussing her statement with her.'
On Saturday, Shirsat found himself in the eye of another storm after making a public statement at an event that people should ask for any amount, he as a minister will sanction it.
The money, he said, 'is not going from our father's pockets'. The opposition quickly slammed him, calling his attitude toward public money as a ''cavalier'.
Shirsat, however, defended his statement.
'I was trying to encourage people to take funds under various welfare schemes of the government. What I meant to say was that money belonged to the people and it was not anyone's wealth,' he said.
Last month, a video surfaced showing Shirsat lying on his bed at his home with an unzipped bag of cash on the floor.
On Sunday, Minister of State Meghna Bordikar triggered a row after a video showing her allegedly threatening to slap a gram sevak if he fails to bring beneficiaries of a government scheme to a public function surfaced. Opposition Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar Saturday shared the video, shot during an event at Jintur in the Parbhani district, on social media.
In a post on X, written in Marathi, Pawar said, 'A minister has threatened to slap a gram sevak if he failed to bring the beneficiary of a government scheme to the government function. Who has given her the power to threaten the gram sevak?'
Taking a jibe at CM Fadnavis, Pawar added, 'What kind of a minister have you succeeded in picking? With such ministers, it is an affront not just your Cabinet but the state of Maharashtra.'
Reacting to the video of her speech, Bordikar, the two-time MLA from Jintur, said, 'I expressed my anger at a function yesterday. At the function, zilla parishad officials were present. This particular gram sevak was not taking the welfare schemes being implemented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to the poor people. He was creating impediments.'
She said women labourers had informed her that the gram sevak was not giving them government funds and telling them to repeatedly go to the sarpanch's house.
'I lost cool because the women labourers had complained to me about the harassment from the gram sevak,' said Bordikar, who is the Minister of State for Public Health, Water Supply and Sanitation, Energy, Women and Child Development, and Public Works (Public Undertakings). She is also the Guardian Minister of the Parbhani district.
Hitting back at Pawar and the Opposition, she said, 'The video was edited and what I said before making the statement and after has not been shown.'
The Sena (UBT) said the Chief Minister and his government has become helpless because of the 'alliance dharma'.
'I have never seen a chief minister who is so helpless. No one can seek any answer from anyone in his cabinet,' Uddhav Thackeray said, adding that his party will state state-wide protests against corruption of Fadnavis ministers.
Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray in a tweet took a jibe at the Chief Minister said, 'Because of the helplessness of the alliance dharma, Shirsat will soon get the finance ministry. Happy Friendship Day, CMO Maharashtra. When those who play Rummy get sports ministry, then because of the helplessness of alliance dharma, he will get finance ministry.'
Earlier, eight ministers, including Shirsat, were in the line of fire and their possible exclusion had become imminent after they landed themselves in controversies. However, they got a reprieve with the Chief Minister warning them to behave properly or face action.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More