Mumbai : If industries minister and senior Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai is to be trusted, the Jaitapur nuclear power project in Ratnagiri might be the next flashpoint in the soaring relations between the coalition partners in the state government.
“The government will have to wind up the nuclear power project,” Desai said, as he was speaking about the Sena’ stand over several issues and its protests at the BCCI headquarters here on Monday. “Though we get ridiculed initially, it has always been seen that the Shiv Sena stands vindicated at the end.”
“Nothing will happen as far as the Jaitapur Nuclear project is concerned and the plant will finally be shut down,” he said, referring to the agitation taken up by the Sena against the project. “We are not opposing the project all alone. The local people too are against it. We shall support them as long as they oppose the project,” Desai said, indicating the Sena’s opposition to the project — among the 17 pacts signed between the two countries during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Paris — will continue.
“Fishermen there are conducting their business since many years. The project will out an end to it. Even while setting up the Tarapur Atomic Power station, the government had promised that there will be no adverse effect on the peoples’ livelihoods. Later, they issued a notification banning fishing within 10-km radius of the plant,” Desai pointed out. He also claimed there is no work in progress within the boundary wall of Jaitapur project. Though a few project-affected families had accepted compensation, these are the people who had left the village long back and their land had remained unused even earlier, he said.
“We are firm on our ideology and our stands on various issues are based on our ideology. May it be the issue of Jaitapur or Pakistani artistes and sportspersons performing in India, our stand never changes,” Desai said. “Others, who do not have firm ideology, take different stands,” he added, hinting at the BJP.
He also took a dig at the BJP over the issue of the Land Acquisition Bill. Out of the five changes the Sena had suggested, the Centre had to accept three in the end, he pointed out.
“If the BJP had listened to us when we first protested against the Bill, they would not have gone through so much humiliation,” he said. He praised the protest by Sena workers at BCCI headquarters and said Sena’s stand against Pakistan has never changed. “Others take time to understand it.”
Meanwhile, BJP leader and revenue minister Eknath Khadse said: “They [Sena] should not waste their time in opposing developmental projects. On one hand, they are protesting against load shedding and on the other they are opposing the power generation plant.”
