The politics of defaming Maharashtra

A landslide near the connecting link on the Mumbai-Pune expressway during the recent rains resulted in the suspension of traffic through the tunnel for some time. Traffic was restored after 18 hours thanks to the tireless efforts of the employees of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation.

However, in the meantime, leaders of the opposition parties in the state and paid anti-BJP gangs on social media launched a shameless campaign of propaganda and rumours against the Mahayuti government, the Bharatiya Janata Party and especially Devendra Fadnavis over this issue.

They derived sadistic pleasure by spreading several rumours, such as ‘the connecting link has collapsed,’ ‘the connecting link has developed a breach’ and ‘the 7,000 crore spent by the state government on it has gone to waste. They were even pleased when traffic on the connecting link was suspended. They used this occasion to vent all the bitterness they had harboured against the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Mahayuti.

A few from electronic media were also involved in this. Many media veterans were left in shock after the alliance of Uddhav Thackeray and his brother Raj Thackeray failed to achieve success in the Assembly elections and later in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections, despite making several efforts. They too got an opportunity to vent their bitterness against the BJP.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s hard-hitting reply in the Legislative Assembly rattled many. These people started creating a fuss by asking questions like, ‘Shouldn’t the government’s work be criticised? Shouldn’t questions be raised? But the fact is that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had not objected to questions being raised about the connecting link. He objected to rumour-mongering and the spreading of false information among the public about a good project.

These people spread a false narrative on social media claiming that the Mahayuti government is wasting taxpayers’ money by carrying out constructions in an improper manner in Maharashtra and that Devendra Fadnavis is solely responsible for it.

After the incident of a natural landslide near the entrance of the tunnel of the Missing Link, some MVA leaders started making corruption allegations against this project without obtaining any technical information. The tunnel of the Missing Link was intact, no water had entered the tunnel and the main structure of the project was not damaged.

The landslide occurred on the mountain slope outside the tunnel. This was a completely natural geological phenomenon. Such natural phenomena occur even in the world’s most modern road and tunnel projects. That does not mean substandard construction or corruption. Even while speaking on television channels, false information was presented in such a way that the common man should stop using this link altogether.

This is nothing but defamation of our Maharashtra. The opposition and paid trolls on social media, just to satisfy their urge to oppose, tried to create panic by giving an impression that the connecting link had collapsed.

It is almost impossible to avoid damage during natural calamities like excessive rainfall, because nature’s fury is beyond any human planning. The nature of rainfall has become more irregular and intense due to climate change. As a month’s worth of rainfall is now occurring within a few hours, rivers and streams overflow, water discharge from the dams increases and landslides begin to occur on mountain slopes.

A landslide occurred on the mountain slope above the tunnel of the Missing Link, as Lonavala experienced more than 500 mm of rainfall within just a few hours. Railway traffic on the Mumbai–Pune railway line was also suspended due to a landslide.

No matter how much progress mankind has achieved through science, human beings are still no match for the immense power of nature. Excessive rainfall is one such disaster during which bringing damage to zero is nearly impossible due to several factors, despite accurate forecasting and advance preparation.

The biggest challenge with excessive rainfall is the massive amount of rain that falls within a very short period of time. Rainfall occurring in a month’s time falls within just a few hours. There is no natural or man-made system anywhere in the world that can drain such a volume of water within such a short period of time.

Therefore, facing sudden floods is beyond human capacity. As far as Maharashtra is concerned, the terrain of the Konkan and the hilly areas of the Western Ghats is such that the excessive rainfall loosens the soil, causing the entire mountain base to collapse. In 2013, the entire village of Malin in Ambegaon taluka (Pune district) was buried under a mountain.

Whether it is this tragedy or the disaster in Taliye village in Mahad or the Irshalwadi tragedy, even transporting modern machinery to such locations becomes difficult because of the geographical terrain. Unfortunately, instead of giving true information about an important infrastructure project in Maharashtra, an attempt was made to play the politics of rumours. Connecting Link’ (formerly the Missing Link project) is an engineering marvel.

This project, which has the world’s largest and widest tunnel, is a pride of Maharashtra. This 22.33-metre-wide tunnel has been recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s widest underground tunnel. The 650-metre-long cable-stayed bridge is the main attraction of this project. Built at a height of around 125 metres and supported by two 182-metre-tall pillars, this bridge is an excellent example of modern architecture.

Spreading false information about such a project merely for political opposition reflects an extremely sick mindset. Visiting the site and bringing any shortcomings to the attention of the administration before the launch of the project would have been a sign of responsible opposition. But, by using an incident as an excuse to spread rumours, the opposition has shown that they have completely lost their minds.

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