Mumbai: Irrespective of whether you are
guilty or not, you will be punished in the people's court on
the basis of perceptions generated through media trials,
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said on Friday.
"Some decisions have to be taken based on perceptions
irrespective of whether you are guilty or not. You get
punished in the people's court on perception arising out of a
media trial. In recent times, we have seen two such
instances," Chavan said, without a direct reference to the
Adarsh Housing scam in which his predecessor Ashok Chavan had
to lose his post.
The Chief Minister said even former Chief Minister
Vilasrao Deshmukh had to face a media trial when he was forced
to resign after the 26/11 terror attacks.
Chavan was addressing a gathering of Congress workers and
leaders at Tilak Bhavan, the party's state unit headquarters
in central Mumbai.
Pointing that the post of Chief Minister was a "crown of
thorns", Chavan said he had come with a mandate to take hard
and tough decisions related to governance. "I have the
directives to do so," he added.
He said he views his new assignment as his way of
repaying the debt he owes to his home state.
Chavan admitted that he had never expected that he would
be asked to shift to Mumbai. Acknowledging that there were lot
of expectations from him, Chavan said ministry formation was
his first priority.
Chavan said that his six-year stint in the PMO and the
ministerial as well as Parliamentarian experience would help
him in running the state coalition.
"The UPA is much more difficult coalition that the
Congress-NCP in the state since there are many allies. But,
state issues are different. Sometimes, due to fight over who
would take credit, important decisions regarding welfare of
people get stalled," he added.
PTI
First Published: Friday, November 12, 2010, 22:15