RJ Malishka faces BMC ire post pothole parody

With roads across the city riddled with potholes after a second spell of heavy rains, the Opposition in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) slammed the Shiv Sena on Wednesday for "showing intolerance" towards a video by radio jockey Malishka who took a dig at the BMC over its inability to tackle the issue of potholes every monsoon.

After Malishka's video went viral with over 12 lakh views on YouTube, the Yuva Sena on Tuesday had sought action against the channel and asked the civic body to file a Rs 500 crore defamation suit against the private radio channel. The same day, a team from the Civic Health Department visited Malishka's mother Lily Mendonsa's residence in Bandra and served her a notice after they allegedly found mosquito breeding spots in and outside her apartment.

However, Mumbaikars on Wednesday, came out in support of of Malishka on Twitter.

Citizens raised the pathetic condition of roads and claimed the civic body's action was a deliberate attempt to suppress freedom of speech.

Even other radio jockeys from various channels came out in support of Malishka. RJ Anirudh of Big FM said that he supported Malishka as she had not used any defamatory words in her song, and that whatever she had said was right, going by the current situation of roads in the city. Even RJ Akki of FM Rainbow of All India Radio supported Malishka. However, he said that she could have also lodged a formal complaint with the concerned authority regarding monsoon related issues.

During the standing committee meeting on Wednesday, Rais Shaikh, group leader of Samajwadi Party raised a point of order on the RJ Malishka issue. He alleged that the civic administration showed intolerance over the video by serving a notice to the radio jockey's mother.

"Can we deny that the city roads do not have potholes?" asked Shaikh. He added that Malishka had expressed the same in the the video and that popular sentiment on the issue could be gauged by how many people had trolled the BMC over the issue on Twitter.

Manoj Kotak, BJP group leader, said that instead of escalating the matter, the civic administration should have repaired the roads first to show its promptness towards solving a problem.

However, Shiv Sena defended the civic administration's move to serve the notice to Malishka's mother. Yashwant Jadhav, leader of the House, said that the video was deliberately posted to malign the image of the city. "There is a process to lodge a complaint, and citizens are expected to follow it," said Jadhav. He asked whether the radio jockey had followed the process before posting the video.

Potholes on roads across the city are a perennial bane for Mumbaikars. The BMC often says its hands are tied as not all roads and flyovers in the city fall under its jurisdiction, and that multiple agencies are involved. However, with the Shiv Sena-BJP combine in power both in state, and in the BMC, this excuse no longer holds any water. In fact, the state PWD minister Eknath Shinde, is also from Shiv Sena.

This year, the civic body decided to do away with the usual counting of number of potholes. In a surprising move, the civic administration also transferred Chief Engineer Sanjay Darade from the civic roads department with two months of monsoon still to go. The same officer was felicitated by the civic administration for completing road works before the monsoon. During the meeting on Wednesday, Leader of Opposition Ravi Raja, raised the issue of transfer of the roads department officer during the monsoon.

VP Chithore, Chief Engineer of the roads department of the BMC refused to comment on Malishka's song. In a reply to a text message he said, "It is their perception and we are doing our job."

NO MORE EXCUSES

• BMC says its hands are tied as all roads don’t fall under its jurisdiction, and multiple agencies are involved.
   
• With Sena-BJP combining power both in state, and in the BMC, this excuse no longer holds any water.