MUMBAI: After several incidents of Mahayuti leaders demonstrating their power play and arrogance, another one surfaced on Sunday. NCP(SP) MLA Rohit Pawar shared a video of BJP leader and minister of state Meghana Bordikar publicly threatening to slap a gram sevak, and advised CM Devendra Fadnavis to control his ministers. Bordikar, however, claimed that the video was misleading, and said she was warning the gram sevak, as there were complaints that he had demanded bribes from widows and women labourers to register them for government schemes.
For the last several months, Mahayuti politicians such as Sanjay Shirsat, Yogesh Kadam, Sanjay Rathod, Gopichand Padalkar and Manikrao Kokate have damaged the image of the state government on account of corruption charges or arrogant behaviour in public. A displeased Fadnavis warned all his ministers in the last cabinet meeting to stay away from such conduct and not force him to take action against them.
The viral video of Bordikar, who holds several portfolios, including energy, public health, and women and child development, was taken at a government function held at Bori village in Parbhani. It showed her threatening the gram sevak over a mic from the stage. “Stop doing work for someone else,” she said. “Who’s paying your salary? Do you think we don’t know what you are doing? My name is Meghana Bordikar, and mark my words, I will give you a tight slap and dismiss you from work. I have deliberately brought the zilla parishad CEO here to see what you are doing. Do your job properly, otherwise quit.”
Rohit Pawar, who shared the video on social media, slammed Bordikar for speaking so insolently with a government servant and threatening to slap him. “After the Mahayuti minister playing rummy in the legislative council, another running a dance bar and yet another caught sitting with a bag of money, here is one more minister who is threatening to slap a gram sevak,” he said. “Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, this is not just maligning the image of your government but also that of Maharashtra. Does the minister have the authority to slap a gram sevak? Control your ministers.” Pawar also alleged that Bordikar had given targets to gram sevaks to bring in a certain number of beneficiaries of government schemes to the function but that particular gram sevak failed to achieve the target.
Bordikar, however, claimed that the video was deceptive. “Rohit Pawar should not mislead the people of the state by giving half information,” she said. “There was a complaint that this gram sevak was harassing widows and women labourers by demanding money from them to register them for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. As a guardian minister, I spoke to the gram sevak in the language that he understands. I have also said in the video that the poor should get the benefit of housing.”
Fadnavis, on his part, defended Bordikar. “I spoke to her and she gave me an explanation,” he said. “The video does not contain the full conversation.”