MVA govt running on ‘extortion’, lost moral authority to govern, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

The BJP on Tuesday attacked the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, accusing it of losing the “moral authority” to govern. Union Minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the state government is running on “extortion.”

Citing former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh’s allegations against state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Prasad said it was the “first time in the country’s history” that a police commissioner had levelled a corruption charge against a sitting Home Minister.

During Tuesday’s press conference, Prasad said the MVA government was headlined by “vasooli (extortion)”.

“When the target of one minister is Rs 100 crore, how much would it be of the remaining ministers? …A khela (game) is happening in Bengal, but in Maharashtra too. What’s happening in the state is not vikas (development), it is vasooli,” Prasad said.

Following Param Bir Singh’s allegations, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had said at a press conference that Home Minister Deshmukh was in self-isolation during the period in question. On Tuesday, Prasad doubled down on the claims of BJP leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who had said that flight manifests show Deshmukh flying from Nagpur to Delhi during that period. Prasad asked if Deshmukh had put the lives of 8 other people on the reported chartered plane at risk if he was Covid-positive. He added that Pawar had been forced to lie, and that his political credibility was at stake.