Tata-Airbus project now ‘lost’ to Gujarat, Maharashtra govt fears blowback

On Thursday, as news came of the Tata-Airbus transport aircraft project also going Gujarat’s way – after the Vedanta-Foxconn and bulk drug park deals – the Opposition launched an offensive on the Shinde government. Together, the projects would have amounted to more than Rs 2 lakh crore in investment and thousands of jobs.

Former industries minister Subhash Desai, of the Uddhav Shiv Sena, wondered at the “coincidence” of big projects moving to Gujarat soon after the Shinde government came to power. “It is evident that the constitution of the new government was to facilitate exodus of investments from Maharashtra to Gujarat,” he said.

Former minister Aaditya Thackeray said: “It’s time the state government explains why all projects are going to Gujarat. They boast of a double engine sarkar. But sadly, it seems both engines in the state have failed.” It seems the Centre is guarding Gujarat’s welfare, Thackeray said.

Calling it “sad” that thousands of youths in Maharashtra will be deprived of jobs, senior NCP leader and former minister Chhagan Bhujbal said, “I have written a letter to the authorities to set up the Tata-Airbus project in Nashik in Maharashtra. We will provide them land and other logistics required.”

State NCP president Jayant Patil accused Shidne and Fadnavis of “complacency”. Both are busy holding political rallies, he said. “Efforts required to pursue such projects are clearly lacking. And this has resulted in Gujarat grabbing opportunities.”

Countering the charges, Maharashtra Industries Minister Uday Samant claimed on Friday that the deal to set up the aircraft project in Gujarat had been signed by the Centre in September last year, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was in power. He accused the Opposition of creating “confusion” over the project. “Be it the Vedanta-Foxconn project or the Tata-Airbus project, the decision about where to set up these projects was taken before this (Eknath Shinde-led) government came to power in late June this year,” Samant said.

State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said it was during the MVA government that Maharashtra’s economy and industry were badly neglected. “Other states went ahead of Maharashtra.” Now, he said, Shinde and Fadnavis were working relentlessly to put the state’s industry on the right track.

The Defence Ministry announced the Tata-Airbus project worth Rs 22,000 crore on Thursday, to come up in Vadodara, under which a military plane will be produced in India for the first time by a private company, in a big boost to the domestic aerospace sector. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone on Sunday. The Vedanta-Foxconn project is a Rs 1.5 lakh crore project to build semiconductors; and the drug park inaugurated by the PM in Jambusar, Gujarat, would be India’s first to manufacture bulk drugs.

The workers of the BJP and Shinde Sena are worried that the first repercussions of Gujarat gaining at Maharashtra’s expense will be felt by them in the coming civic polls, and would also haunt them in the 2024 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

The developments may not have stung as much and been dismissed as healthy competition between states had it not been Gujarat. However, in the case of Gujarat, this taps into the innate animosity between the state and Maharashtra, which were once both part of Bombay Province. Politics in Maharashtra has long centred on regional pride, with Gujaratis, who are seen to control businesses in the commercial hub of Mumbai, often painted as “outsiders”.

A senior minister in the Shinde faction requesting anonymity said, “Everybody knows Maharashtra is losing out to Gujarat because of the Assembly polls in Gujarat. But the question is how are we going to explain the same. What will we tell youths in our constituencies looking for jobs?… The sense that Maharashtra is getting secondary treatment in BJP rule will adversely affect our support base in our constituencies.”

Former minister Desai wondered why Shinde and Fadnavis, with their “excellent rapport” with the Central leadership, were silent on the matter. “Why do the CM and DyCM not exercise their powers to convince it to retain the projects in Maharashtra?”

Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi president Prakash Ambedkar said, “The Centre’s eagerness to send every project Gujarat’s way is a sign of the political desperation of the BJP. They know that their popularity in Gujarat is not the same.” He added: “The PM cannot afford to lose his home state Gujarat. Any failure there would mark the beginning of the BJP’s decline in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.”

The three projects going to Gujarat is also a dent on Maharashtra’s reputation as an investment destination, with Fadnavis himself in 2014, as CM, taking several initiatives to attract FDI. At the Make in India event held in 2015, Maharashtra was said to have got Rs 8 lakh crore of the total Rs 15 lakh crore investments promised.

A senior official involved with the Make In India event pointed out: “The idea of developing Nagpur as a defence hub was Fadnavis’s brainchild (Nagpur is Fadnavis’s hometown). He had drawn a long-term plan, complete with funds and projects.”

Insiders in the BJP admitted that they are counting on the Centre making up to Maharashtra for the lost projects soon. “Damage control will be undertaken to wipe out the injustice to Maharashtra,” a party leader said.

A senior state BJP functionary said, “In politics, patience pays. We admit Maharashtra is on the back foot now. But wait and watch. The state will bag the country’s biggest ever projects in the coming months… Both PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will go all out to erase this Maharashtra versus Gujarat divide.”

Samant said as much Friday, claiming that after the Vedanta-Foxconn project moved to Gujarat, PM Modi had assured a bigger project to the state. “We are confident this will be brought to the state in five-six months.”