Save Aarey campaign caught in BJP-Sena political slugfest
The very first piece of business that the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra took upon itself after coming to power in a dramatic manner a fortnight ago was to announce the relocation of the Mumbai Metro 3 car shed back to Aarey Milk Colony.
Once again, the controversial car shed is to be built in Aarey — commonly referred to as “Mumbai’s green lung” — as was planned back in 2019 when Fadnavis (who is now the deputy CM) occupied the chief minister’s berth during the previous Sena-BJP regime.
The immediacy of the announcement may seem strange at first, but the message to the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led government, from which Shinde and his supporting MLAs had snatched power by launching a coup, was clear: Tit for tat.
After all, it was Uddhav, who, on November 29, 2019 — just a day after coming to power — had overturned Fadnavis’ decision to build the metro car shed at Aarey. He had scrapped the project and announced that the shed would be built instead on the salt pan land located at Kanjurmarg. He also “declared” nearly 800 acres of land at Aarey as a reserve forest.
“Aarey saved,” son Aaditya Thackeray had tweeted at the time.
BJP says it is for the common man
One may ask what was the new Shinde-Fadnavis government’s rush to make the relocation announcement on the first day of office?
BJP spokesperson Shweta Shalini told The Federal that as municipal elections were just around the corner, the decision on the Metro 3 car shed had to be taken now, keeping in mind the best interests of Mumbaikars.
“Around 65 lakh people can use the Metro on a daily basis,” she said. “Every day, approximately 6-7 deaths happen due to mishaps due to overcrowded local trains. Also, what is the main reason behind Uddhav or Aaditya having ruled out the car shed from Aarey? It is because there are a whole lot of Bollywood celebrities who are considered to be green champions and who are associated with NGOs.”
“Celebrities don’t use the Metro. The common man is the one who needs the metro service on a daily basis… they are the ones who are troubled every day by commuting to and from different parts of the city,” she added.
“It is very good optics (for Uddhav and Aaditya) since it is a celebrity issue,” said Shalini. “When they came to power, the first thing that they also did was to rule out and relocate the car shed from Aarey colony. There are more than five lakh trees in Aarey. Out of these, only 2,000 need to be cut for the car shed.”
She added that the car shed at Aarey made sense since almost 30 per cent of the work has already been completed at the spot. “Furthermore, the more we delay the setting up of the car shed, the higher the ticket price will be — almost a hundred rupees each.”
When asked if relocating the car shed to Aarey was a tit-for-tat against the Uddhav regime, she said: “The more you delay it, the more losses will be incurred. The proposed Kanjurmarg site is technically private land and the relocation cost to Kanjurmarg would cost an extra Rs 2,400 crore. The point is that the previous government had taken a political decision regarding relocation as soon as they came into power too…and they overruled it.”
When asked if making the announcement on day 1 was meant to send a message to the previous government, she said: “Yes, you could say that it was. It is clear that we are very different than the government that was in power for the last 2.5 years. All of these decisions are typical messages that we (new government of BJP-Sena) are very different than the Uddhav government.”
BJP general secretary and member of Maharashtra’s legislative council Chandrashekhar Bawankule told The Federal: “They (previous government) had made a wrong decision by moving the car shed to Kanjurmarg… we have to correct it now.” He pointed out that the timing of a government’s decision doesn’t matter because a government is empowered to make a decision anytime it wants.
“Uddhav ji and Aaditya relocated the Metro car shed for their own vested interests…it was a one-sided decision taken by them,” he said. “If they didn’t oppose the car shed initially when it was proposed (during BJP-Sena tenure) then why did they suddenly start opposing it in 2020?”
Caught in a political slugfest
While parties try to outmanoeuvre each other, concerned Mumbaikars, green activists and environmentalists have once again banded together and taken to the streets, bracing the pelting rain, to express their anger over the car shed’s relocation.
This is the Save Aarey 2.0 movement.
Nishant Bangera, the founder of MUSE Foundation, told The Federal: “It sometimes feels like we are caught in the middle of a political slugfest. The current deputy chief minister (Fadnavis) has made it an ego issue. There is a deliberate attempt being made to create a conflict where there is none and trying to show who is more powerful than the other. And in this entire process, it is the common citizens who are suffering.”
“What is a lesser-known fact is that we (environmental groups) had continued the movement and protests even through MVA times,” he said, adding that there were a few factors that made them feel “uneasy” even during the previous regime.
“The BJP has openly wanted to take the car shed to Aarey since the very beginning. But having said that, there were a number of things that MVA could have done to protect the land during its tenure. It could have reserved the entire plot where the car shed is supposed to be built and made it a no-development zone or a green zone. The previous government said a lot of things and there was a lot of narrative and image building…but all of it was done to end the conflict at the time,” he said.
Details were sought about the shifting of the car shed to Kanjurmarg, nothing was available in the public domain, he added, “This made us wary.”
Dr Shashirekha, former head of Botany at Mithibai College, told The Federal: “What I don’t understand is that when the previous government had promised to declare the land as a reserved forest area, then why was no action taken to implement the same on the ground? That is how the conflict was stalled…because the then chief minister had promised to take appropriate measures. But they just wanted the fighting to stop…”
“I feel apprehensive that if the car shed is moved back to Aarey, it could cause flooding in the area due to the number of trees that will be cut down. It is like inventing a problem so that you can attempt to solve it all over again,” she said.
Yash Marwah, the co-founder of ‘Let India Breathe’, said: “What happened overnight (with the government) has totally flipped the tables for us.”
“Every environmental movement is, by nature, political. But this kind of dirty politics is not welcome at all,” he said. “We are reminding people that we are not against the metro facility. But at the same time, this issue is not only about the car shed. There will be a station that will follow, and buildings will come up all around.” He added: “At this point, every tree is important.”
Aaditya takes centrestage
Over time, Yuva Sena chief and former environment minister Aaditya Thackeray has — willingly or unwillingly — become the poster boy for the ‘Save Aarey’ movement. On Sunday, he visited Aarey’s picnic spot where the weekly protest was taking place, and interacted with a few people.
On Monday, the National Child Rights Body (NCPCR) wrote to newly appointed Mumbai police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar, asking him to register an FIR against Aaditya within three days for allegedly “using children” during Sunday’s ‘Save Aarey’ protest.
Also read: Aarey protests: Aaditya Thackeray faces action for ‘child labour’
“What has happened now is that since he (Aaditya) has come, all of the attention has been taken by him. Articles with headlines stating that he is ‘leading’ protests are popping up. All of this is very misleading. Who is organising these protests? They (protests) are happening very naturally and it is the citizens who are doing it,” said Bangera, who had spoken with Aaditya on Sunday when he visited Aarey.
“While we are with any political party who wants to support the cause, we are also very conscious of the fact that no political party should hijack it,” he said.