For the love of Maharashtra

Maharashtra witnessed some dizzying political theatrics last month. I am not a political analyst, and I do not claim to understand much of what happened. However, as a student of Earth Sciences who is told remarkably often that the "real world" is out of my depth, I have tried to understand this election and put it in perspective of the climate crisis.

My attempt to make sense of the State Election chronology

While the political circus kept the whole state, and probably the Centre as well, engaged for a whole month, November also saw a parallel plot-line developing. This one directly affected over a crore people and indirectly affected the whole country. In fact, the plot of Kaun banega CM was so gripping that while going through the November news, I realised that this parallel plot had not even made the headlines.

Articles from the print archives of Indian Express

In 2019, Maharashtra suffered first from a drought during the monsoonal months, and then from unseasonal rain in the post-monsoon months partly due to Cyclone Kyarr. This has caused a massive agrarian crisis (over Rs. 5000 cr, affecting over 1 crore farmers), the effects of which have rippled through the entire country.

Articles from the print archives of Indian Express

Maharashtra is prone to both droughts and floods. This is hardly a "new" crisis. For eg., this article from 2016 talks of pretty much the same stuff as 2019 saw. Here is an article from last year, again asking the same questions. Successive governments talk about various policies as if they're the latest discovery on the block, and that their implementation of those policies will solve all of Maharashtra's problems. That's clearly not working, and is bound to not work.

Policies cannot be expected to work if they only treat symptoms, not the cause. No economy can "win" over climate change using short-term solutions. It is not just unrealistic and a waste of the taxpayer's money; it is an assault on many Maharashtrian's lives and livelihoods.

I'm aware that political parties treat climate change as if it is the most recent buzzword that they need to learn to gain popularity. For example, the BJP "promised" to make Maharashtra drought-free in their manifesto, without any mention of tackling climate change. In fact, none of the parties mentioned climate change in their manifestoes, as if the issue simply does not exist.

Climate change means more floods, more droughts, more heatwaves and a sea-level rise. All 4 of these are affecting Maharashtra every year and are leading to economic and human losses. The idea of "development" is only an illusion until it accounts for these climate damages. The short-term mis-estimated gains cannot match the long-term losses.

A potential silver lining

Apart from the much-needed side-effect of exposing corruption on multiple levels, the Maharashtra State Elections also led to an interesting result -- a regional party coming to the forefront has rescued the state from the possibility of having its identity under-appreciated and sidelined in a nationalist quest. It is reasonable to assume that in the future, several Indian states will be contending for Central assistance in dealing with climate disasters. Maharashtra must identify its own vulnerabilities and address those before aiming for any more status symbols.

For a state that houses many globally-acclaimed climate experts at IIT Bombay and IITM Pune (and perhaps more institutions that I do not know of, right now), the path is undoubtedly clearer. But it is long and difficult nonetheless and the state must take long strides.

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