With Tata-Airbus going Vedanta-Foxconn way MVA flays Shinde-Fadnavis govt over ‘failures’

With the Vedanta-Foxconn and Tata-Airbus mega projects going to Gujarat, the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government and the Opposition alliance of Maha Vikas Aghadi are now embroiled in trading barbs and blame games.

Initially planned to be set up in Talegaon in Pune, the Vedanta-Foxconn project would not be in Gujarat—same as the Tata-Airbus project, which was initially proposed at the multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport (MIHAN) in Nagpur.

Another big project, the Bulk Drug Park project, initially proposed for Raigad, would now be set up in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

State’s industry minister Uday Samant justified it saying that the Union government had decided to move the project to Gujarat, even before Shinde assumed charge as Chief Minister.

“Be it the Vedanta-Foxconn project or the Tata-Airbus project, the decision about where to set up these projects was taken before this government came to power in the state…. The opposition is doing nothing except to criticise and create confusion,” said Sawant, who is from the rebel Shiv Sena camp.

“The central government had signed an MoU in September 2021 and the company had decided to take the project to Gujarat,” he said referring to the Tata-Airbus project.

State Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said the criticism was like hiding behind one’s sins. “The Union cabinet had approved the project on September 8, 2021. The MoU was also signed. However, no letter was written by the then-Maharashtra government to bring the project to the state. The criticism is misleading,” Upadhye said, challenging the MVA leaders to produce documents that proves they made a demand.

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s son and Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray, too, slammed the incumbent government. “Will the state government give answers to why these projects are going out? This (Tata-Airbus) is yet another project which has gone away from Maharashtra since the traitor government has come to power in the state. They always boast that they have a double-engine government, but although one engine of the central government is working, the state government's engine has failed,” he said.

State Nationalist Congress Party chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said: “In (the) last three months, three projects have gone out to Gujarat. The industries minister (Samant) has blamed the previous government. He and the chief minister were ministers in the previous government. This blame game is not going to work.”

NCP national spokesperson Clyde Castro said: “Just asking, does Uday Samant have amnesia? When questioned about losing the Vedanta-Foxconn project to Gujarat, he had said that his government will secure the Tata-Airbus project to produce military aircraft in Nagpur. The minister is creating confusion to hide the failures of his government at the cost of people of Maharashtra. Uday Samant is playing politics with his own people to safeguard the political aspirations of his defecting group.”

“With Tata-Airbus plant, too, shifting to Gujarat, it’s clear that the Shinde-Fadnavis government is working to make Gujarat prosperous at the cost of Maharashtra…this pattern is being repeated again and again,” Congress leader Sachin Sawant said.