Maharashtra’s Marathwada is not just fighting nature’s fury — it is battling a far more dangerous disaster: the utter apathy and inefficiency of its own government. Unprecedented rains have ravaged the region, turning fertile farmlands into watery graveyards, sweeping away livestock, cutting off villages, and drowning months of hard labour in a matter of hours. Yet, the state machinery, led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his two deputies Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde, has responded with a lethargy that borders on felonious negligence. Their delayed visits to flood-hit areas were not met with gratitude but with outrage, as angry farmers and villagers confronted them over the pathetic pace of relief distribution and the complete absence of proactive planning. Shinde’s tone-deaf remark, asking people to focus on the “intention” behind relief rather than the miserable execution, exposed just how detached and insensitive the government has become. People do not need empty intentions; they need immediate action, decisive governance, and leaders who stand with them when their lives and livelihoods are washed away.
This government, however, seems too busy saving its own seat belts to save its people. Most of its time has been squandered in the political circus of breaking alliances, forging new ones, and keeping the coalition intact. Governance has taken a backseat to power games. Corruption, irregularities, and bureaucratic red tape run deep within the system, while compassion — the most basic quality expected of leadership — is nowhere to be found. In just three days, more than ten people have died in flood-related incidents, yet the state’s response has been sluggish and directionless. It was not the chief minister or his deputies who initiated urgent rescue efforts — it was the local MP Omprakash Rajenimbalkar, who took the initiative to coordinate evacuations through the Collector’s office. The so-called leadership in Mumbai woke up from its deep political slumber only after Rajenimbalkar’s video went viral on social media, shaming them into action. Until then, they were content to issue hollow statements and stage-managed visits.
The disconnect between the rulers and the ruled was glaringly evident when a desperate farmer questioned Devendra Fadnavis about the insultingly low compensation per hectare. Instead of offering solutions or empathy, Fadnavis snapped, “Don’t politicise the issue.” Police then removed the farmer from the site, silencing the very voice they were supposed to hear. That single moment summed up everything wrong with this government — arrogant, intolerant of criticism, and allergic to accountability. In Solapur, where heavy rainfall has destroyed thousands of acres of soybean, cotton, and maize, Fadnavis’s big solution was to use drone footage for assessing crop loss. It is a classic bureaucratic band-aid — high on optics, low on substance. Farmers don’t need aerial surveys; they need swift compensation, interest waivers, and support to rebuild their lives. The reliance on drone footage only delays relief and adds another layer of red tape to a process already strangled by bureaucracy.
Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde, for their part, made their rounds in the flood-affected villages, instructing officials to provide food, shelter, and medicine — the kind of obvious instructions that should have been issued days earlier. Their words sounded rehearsed and robotic, a ritual performance rather than genuine leadership. Meanwhile, the region’s reality is brutal: rivers have overflowed, villages have been submerged, roads and bridges have collapsed, and farmlands — the very heart of rural Maharashtra — have been wiped out. To make matters worse, some areas are simultaneously battling drought, leaving farmers trapped between two extremes of climate disaster with no safety net.
The real tragedy is that the state’s farmers are already on the brink. Repeated crop failures, mounting debt, and rising input costs have pushed them into chronic distress. Many have not yet recovered from last season’s losses, and now, this year’s floods have erased whatever little hope remained. In such a situation, timely relief isn’t just desirable — it is a matter of survival. Yet, the government’s slow-motion response shows no urgency, no vision, and no empathy. It is telling that the most effective relief has come not from the state but from the Indian Army, whose personnel conducted high-risk helicopter rescues, evacuated stranded villagers, and distributed food in areas where the government had failed to reach. Their professionalism and speed only highlight the state administration’s incompetence.
This is not a natural calamity alone; it is a governance disaster, entirely man-made. Maharashtra’s disaster management is stuck in a bygone era — reactive instead of proactive, chaotic instead of coordinated, heartless instead of humane. A state that prides itself on being an industrial powerhouse cannot even ensure basic disaster preparedness for its farmers, the very people who feed its cities and sustain its economy. Eknath Shinde, Ajit Pawar, and Devendra Fadnavis have collectively failed the people of Maharashtra. Their priorities are clear: politics over people, power over performance, survival over service. And unless this attitude changes, the floods will not just wash away crops and homes — they will wash away what little trust the people still have left in their government.
