Mungantiwar on Rs 500 crore clip row: No one can finish anyone, Shinde is a friend

A clip about Rs 500 crore has set off a sharp row between the BJP and the Shinde faction. BJP leaders have attacked the Shinde faction, asking who had taken the contract to finish Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and who had helped Jarange for it.

Senior BJP leader and former state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar responded. Speaking to the media, he said no one can finish anyone. If someone is finished, he said, it is because of their own mistakes. According to him, the blessings of the people are not tied to a post but to work.

Shinde faction leader Ramdas Kadam had claimed that the BJP is afraid of Eknath Shinde. Mungantiwar asked what there was to be afraid of. Shinde is a friend and will remain one, he said. If fear creeps in among friends, it is no longer politics, he said, adding that such statements should not be made within the Mahayuti. He asked people not to pay attention to imaginary things. Mungantiwar claimed this could be part of a political ploy and an attempt to drive a wedge between the BJP and the Shiv Sena.

Mungantiwar asked that if no one will give money and no one will take it, what is this story of the clip? He likened it to a tale. A chick began running, thinking the sky had fallen, only to find later that a leaf had fallen from a tree. He also gave the example of a new scientist who looks at the sky through a telescope and begins shouting that a big storm is coming, only to learn later that a fly was sitting on the lens. According to him, these people are in the same position.

He said that if imaginary things are commented upon, such precedents will be set in politics. Tomorrow any two people could make such a clip and defame anyone. Should everyone then be arrested, Mungantiwar asked.

He asked whether anyone would give Rs 500 crore to someone, calling it a matter of common sense. Manoj Jarange is a genuine activist, so why would he take money, he asked. If that were the case, he would have entered politics and taken a post. Mungantiwar said he was fully confident that Shinde would not give and Jarange would not take.

He was also asked whether the clip had created distance between the Shinde faction and the BJP. In reply, he said maturity in politics needs to grow. Such audio clips need not be taken seriously. Imaginary video clips appear and vanish with time, as has been seen before. Who says what about whom in a clip is not in your hands, and sometimes it may also be made with AI, he said.

According to Mungantiwar, ordinary people feel that channels should discuss the drought more than the clip. The farmer who toils to grow grain and bring it to our plates is missing from the channels' discussions. He said it is not right to run debates on a clip based on such a legend. It has become part of the maze of politics. He also said it is not right to make an artificial audio clip, get it debated and watch the level of politics fall.