Power Play

When technocrat turned politician Prithviraj Chavan was handed the reins of Maharashtra, he was given a strong mandate from the house at 10 Janpath; it was to sustain Maharashtra’s development. Maharashtra desperately needs power to sustain its ‘numero uno’ position. The state power deficit has exceeded 5500Mw; this is enough to run most of the smaller states. Under these circumstances, thermal or hydro projects would prove insufficient in addressing this scarcity, thus a nuclear power plant is the need of the hour.

In politics, addressing an issue is called leadership and solving an issue is political suicide. Jaitapur is no different, the ruling combine would want to prove their might by pushing the project ahead at a snail’s pace, this ensures sustaining development…slow development is always more visible. The opposition seems lost for an argument; BJP does not seem to have any stand on the Jaitapur project, they probably can’t afford to have one keeping in line with their nuclear policy when they enjoyed majority at the center. Shiv Sena’s peaceful march turned violent sacrificing the life of a youth while their executive president was busy in forests of Kanha reserve photographing wildlife. Local leaders suddenly find themselves backed by powers behind curtains, whose identity they choose not to explore. The international agencies entrusted with the job of developing the project are abaft in the current scenario soaking in the Indian democratic culture. One could only hope this time to not have a reoccurrence of the 1999 Enron fiasco.