With less than 10 days remaining for campaigning for the Maharashtra state assembly elections, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) released its manifesto, ‘Vachanama’.
In this manifesto, Thackeray promised to provide free education for male students, stabilize the prices of essential products, and scrap the Dharavi redevelopment project.
He also said that if Maha Vikas Agadi comes to power, he will scrap the cluster development of Koliwadas and Gaothans, and this will only be done after gaining the residents’ confidence.
While free education and affordable essential products sound good, Thackeray’s other stances can only be considered as anti-development.
Why Uddhav’s Opposing Dharavi Redevelopment
Uddhav Thackeray and his party leaders have claimed that a total of 1080 acres of land in Mumbai has been given free of cost to the Adani group disguised as Dharavi Redevelopment.
As per Aditya Thackeray, “Construction of almost 7,00,000 sq ft outside of Dharavi will generate almost Rs 1,00,000 crore, with no revenue for Mumbai. And ineligible families will be made to buy homes in Mulund, Kurla, Deonar, Madh, Kanjurmarg, and Bhandup, so who is this project being made for?”
The opposition alliance has also claimed that this bid wasn’t allotted based on merit but to favor a ‘Gujarati’ friend of the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Leaders like Rahul Gandhi have also been critical of this project stating, “Dharavi is the real Make In India, it is a manufacturing hub…desh dalal nahi, Dharavi ke log banate hai…Dharavi is your land but the government is trying to acquire it through dalals.”
However, there is no proof of favoritism as the Adani group won the bidding war for the tender in 2022. The group bid double that of its competitor, for about Rs 5070 crores. Furthering, the terms to which the opposition alliance is questioning the government and Adani group were said to be finalized during the term of the Maha Vikas Agadi government of which Uddhav Thackeray was the chief minister.
The real reason behind the protest against Adani’s Dharavi redevelopment seems to be the effect it would have on the real estate market, especially Central Mumbai. As the rehabilitation of Asia’s biggest slum has been repeatedly canceled for the past 17 years, whoever successfully implements it will change Mumbai for the better or worse.
Uddhav’s Continous Anti-Development Stance Ft. Aarey Protests
One of the biggest achievements of the BJP in Mumbai is the metro lines they’ve provided, however, the recent BKC underground metro would’ve been fully constructed if it wasn’t for Uddhav’s protest against the Aarey car shed.
The alleged ‘Tree Savior’ Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya Thackeray delayed the metro card shed project causing crores in tax-payers money. Many believed that the only reason to cancel the metro car shed in Aarey including the relocation to Kanjurmarg was to receive kickbacks from contractors, however, there is no proof of this.
There are reports were Uddhav’s negligence and anti-development stance almost cost the city is Metro-3 project when he didn’t reply to a letter from the Japanese ambassador.
The letter read, “During JICA’s detailed fact-finding mission with MMRC, conducted from December 2020 to January 2021, it was recognized that there is a real possibility for MMRC to face fund shortage within the next fiscal year (FY2021) if an additional loan cannot be provided by end of fiscal (FY2020).”
There are several stances where Uddhav Thackeray has anti-development has been seen on multiple occasions, whether it is cluster developments of Gaothans, Atal Setu, Coastal Road, or much-needed Metros in the city.