Aamcha CM !!

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way…John C. Maxwell

John Calvin Maxwell is an American author, speaker, and pastor who has written more than 60 books, primarily focusing on leadership. And when our beloved Maharashtra State is getting a new, young leader in form of the Chief Minister popularly nicknamed as CM, it’s this quote came to my rescue to start my sharing! For many this is a common routine democratic thing as what’s a big deal, he isn’t our first CM & neither going to be last one, so what’s so important about it & what difference it’s going to make to the State as well to the real estate or to the society? That’s reaction of so many around & especially after the typical show laden oath taking ceremony; even for a while I also was made to think, is this rail going on the same track of the predecessors ? But for   Mr. Devendra Phadanavis it’s too early to comment as he has to even prove his Govt’s majority yet the talks of the huge rather mammoth task in front of him are on!

Two things I felt like writing to our new CM, one he is from vidarbha i.e. from where I myself have come & another is his age. One more thing which I never like to put forward is his middle class Brahmin background like me & many of our kind! Till now when Nagpur is referred, it’s only for Saoji’s mutton & that too such an extent that many of them from Pune & Mumbai used to think it’s a person named Saoji who rules Nagpur! Such was the state of vidarbhas main city & which is a Second capitol of State too! Well now we can say our CM is from Nagpur! So here it goes….

Dear Devendra,

Best part is in your form first time I am looking at a CM to whom while addressing you don’t feel like calling formality of Sir or Saheb or Baba or Dada or even Bhau, but simply Devendra, like one is greeting an old friend & hope you also are comfortable with it. I never personally believed in caste system but then I am in a field where I can afford that but in a field like politics where every single decision moves around caste, it’s surely a thing to be taken in consideration. By now every news paper & media has covered right from devendra’s childhood to his daughter, every detail has been wrote about & that’s what power & fame does to you; in one single moment nothing is private in your life! Yesterday only I was watching a movie based on martial arts & in the movie the master told to his disciples that “power is good only if backed up with responsibility to use it”! How true the quote is here as a common boy from streets of Nagpur & typical middle class upbringing has now control of whole State in his hand! Many a time we use middle class mentality but what it actually meant? As I myself have gone through that what I feel is it’s the upbringing mentality where all you are supposed to do is study & get a good decent job, where good & bad deeds are very clearly defined & no shades of grey are there! It’s very clear that you can become an engineer or doctor, lawyer or a charted accountant. Even fields like defense services are clear no no, & the word politics is a taboo! Social service is donating to orphanages or sending sweets to old age homes & that’s all. Elections are for voting & never to be contested, not even society elections are supposed to be participated in! And then you are from vidarbha a region which bounds just geographically to the western Maharashtra & never by emotions or attachment by mind. In this Maharashtra there lies many smaller Maharashtra’s which all were being ruled by some three to four districts, as all the power in Govt was allotted or concentrated here only. Nothing wrong after all this was a democratic decision by the citizen of this State only. Yet it has its own effect on entire development of the State & on this background you becoming CM is a shift of power center however one may denies it!

That’s what a middle class mentality is & sure you must be also having similar feelings. The journey which has started as s college karyakarta to opposition party leader has come to a complete circle. As today the war which you have been fighting in assembly for fifteen years with the ruling govt has won & now it will be you who will be in exact reverse role i.e. defending the decision which you will be taking as a CM. Deven, agreed the post you are representing does carries burden of hopes & expectations of millions but in your case its bit more; as years after years people especially common man of the State has been fooled on every front. I am not from any party so no reason for me to criticize any party & I firmly believe you can’t make every single person happy when you are ruling a State yet if you fail for making people satisfied at large then it’s certainly a failure as a ruler in general. Nobody expected free homes or good decent jobs where perks will be a personal car & cheap air travels & things like that. Over the period as a society we have matured a lot & current voting pattern has proved it. All what people expected from the govt is not to make them struggle for day to day survival. On one hand there is a class which can buy any car like BMW to Audi & travel at there will & on other side there are people waiting all night long in the queue for going to Nagpur for diwali vacations may it be railway booking or bus bookings! And always have to see reservation full board & buy tickets of private bus service at their decided rates! The road conditions all along the State; there was a time when I used to travel to Kanha forest en route Nagpur & when rough road starts we used to say “aala MP”  i.e. we have entered in Madhya Pradesh! Now exactly reverse condition is there as soon we leave rough patch we know we are in MP! This is what common man can see & feel by himself now.

This is just one dimension of the condition of State, looking towards the infrastructure its like looking through kaleidoscope i.e. the different angle you use to look at the picture the different it looks but worst each time in our case. Right from MSEB meter name change to 7/12 name change to property tax name change, even to have our own name on such documents makes life of a common man miserable. Law & enforcement  i.e. Police is the worst as right from the movies to TV serials they have been shown as in hand with every illegal personality & that’s what image of the force is in societies eyes. They don’t believe that they will get justices leave apart simple decent treatment they don’t get at police station is a fact! If this is the situation of law & order what can be expected from other fronts! People are not scared to go to “shamshan” in compare to go to any Govt establishment; such is a scene all around. People just don’t trust that there any work will be done without bribe or with comfort in any of the Govt establishments & I think that’s the main defeat of a Govt!  As what Govt is for after all if not to make a common man at comfort & ease? And on this front all are equal; right from a millioner in Mumbai, who wants to earn his money by abiding every law, to a farmer who wants to produce some grain out of his small piece of land at some remote part of the state, all are having same feeling about the Govt establishments; may it be case industrial permissions for an industrialist or distribution of fertilizers to a farmer! Every one of them is frustrated with their experiences in encounters with the Govt systems!

Deven, the day you & your team was taking oath a building fall down like a card house in so called Maharashtra’s cultural capitol i.e. Pune! Fortunately just by sheer luck of the residents, though just one causality happened, yet he too was only son of some unfortunate parents; but nearly twenty families have come on road in a single night. These families have spent their life time earnings to get a simple decent home of their own which has been gone forever now! And with that has gone their faith in any system which we call Justice or Govt! Do mind today it’s just twenty families but nearly millions of such families are living with this threat in their mind with a thought today its Ambegaon i.e. suburb in Pune where the mishap has happened, tomorrow their name also can be in news paper for similar cause! And what is their fault? They don’t have enough money to buy even a 1bhk flat with any of so called decent builder as it’s out of their budget & they have to surrender these death traps we call buildings? As I said no one wants a free luxurious home but surely no one deserves to live in slums or such death machines, that’s what Govt's job is! The state is fast becoming urban & no policy is in place to sustain this change. Cities are becoming like a big slum with environment aspect getting degraded every day & so is life of their citizens!

And one more thing was happening at the very same time, its Dengue spreading like epidemic in Mumbai & Pune. Now what a new CM has to do with thing like Dengue is a question people will ask. But it’s the sorry state of affairs which the spread of Dengue indicates; as with all the modern techniques at hand we can’t control breeding of dengue mosquitoes & thousands of people or paying for incapability of Govt’s public health department.  

These are just two indications of the sorry state we are in! Similarly every department has its own story to tell that how they have failed repeatedly in serving for very basic expectations of the common man, may it be getting a home or public health!

This doesn’t mean all is lost as we have very good & capable officers in every department but somehow collectively we are not performing; it’s kind of situation we had in Indian cricket team before one Mahendrasing Dhoni comes in the picture. We had individual talent but we failed to convert it in to a team effort. But one good caption can change the entire moral of the team & same team can be world champion, & with that expectation people are looking at you now! The good officers need to be supported & new ideas are to be welcomed which are for making the entire spectrum of society a better living place. The common man of this State don’t know GDP or Crores of rupees industries coming in the State as that is important but not than our day to day problems. It’s a five day test match & not twenty twenty where results are instant but then even the test matches are played as per the sessions & every session of game has its own importance keeping end result in sight. No one can win by playing all initial sessions a bad game & then wait for a miracle to happen in last session!

With these words I conclude, all I will say is no more you are just a nagpurian now you belong to entire state & even to country! Go ahead & make proud to all nagpurians as well to the state by making people of this state believe in the system which we call as Govt; as that’s the ultimate success which every past CM has failed to achieve! Our wishes are with you always!

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Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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