Going by the most recent political developments in Maharashtra, it is clear that one needs to be thick-skinned and unashamed to put up a brave face and defend one’s actions.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and his new boss, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, along with their respective cronies, need to be complimented for their shamelessness, in the way they have been defending their rebellion in the party and later claiming that their faction is the real party, respectively.
When Shinde and his gang walked out of the Shiv Sena, they announced that they were joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a government in the interest of Maharashtra and its people. The same was echoed by Ajit Pawar and his coterie.
If all these legislators had walked out of their respective political parties for the good of the people and the state, Maharashtra would have made great progress.
Their claims that they need to be part of the government to serve the people exposes their limited understanding of social and economic development, coupled with their utter ignorance of the noble work of numerous social reformers and activists in India, especially in Maharashtra.
Mahatma Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule, Dhondo Keshav Karve, Baba Amte and his family members, Narendra Dabholkar, Vinoba Bhave, Abhay and Rani Bang, and Iravati Karve are just a few such individuals, who have made immense contributions to the state, without being in the government. Shinde, Pawar and all the legislators, who went against the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), could still emulate these great women and men, to serve Maharashtra and its residents.
The Maharashtra legislators in question have exposed their selfishness with their only concern being to be in power, for their own sake, rather than for the people at large. At least two legislators of the Shiv Sena (Shinde) have been honest about their interest in defecting; they confessed that some of them wanted one bhakri, but got only half or just a quarter, referring to Shinde’s failure to give them a Cabinet berth.
Going by their statements following their exits from their respective parties, Shinde and Pawar resemble twin brothers lost at a fair during their childhood, as the popular Bollywood trope goes. Both of them criticised their party chief for the alliances for their political stand, for not forming a government in alliance with the BJP.
Shinde flayed his then party chief Uddhav Thackeray for forming an alliance with the Congress and the NCP, to form a government inMaharashtra, instead of going with the BJP. Pawar blamed his then pary chief and paternal uncle Sharad Pawar for selecting Shiv Sena as an alliance partner to form a government, while rejecting the BJP for the purpose on the grounds that the latter is a communal party.
There is nothing wrong in Shinde and Pawar taking such stands, but it is ironic that both of them enjoyed power in the government led by Thackeray, which raises doubts about their purported ethical stand. If they were so serious about their objections, they should have kept themselves out of the government. Had they resigned from their parties at the time when Thackeray took the oath of office, they could have become real heroes — not just their followers, they would have won the hearts of many others, given that there are near-zero ethical politicians left in the country.
Shinde cannot be said to be a true Marathi manus, who takes pride in saying that he would rather break than bend. One of the reasons given by Shinde for leaving the Thackeray-led government was that Ajit Pawar used to deny funds for the development of Shiv Sena legislators’ constituencies. The BJP then thrust Pawar on Shinde, who preferred to bend in order to stick to the chief minister’s chair.
Ajit Pawar has criticised Sharad Pawar for not retiring from active politics even though he is 82 years old. It would of course be good if seniors retire and make way for younger politicians, but there are exceptions like Sharad Pawar or the late Ganpatrao Deshmukh. Deshmukh, died in2021 at the age of 94 and was active in politics nearly till his last breath. He was elected to the state legislature for the 11th time in 2014, when he was 88.
Pawar junior has put fraudsters to shame with his deceitful move of declaring himself as the national head of NCP, ousting Pawar senior, at the secret meeting of his supporting legislators on June 30.
Ajit Pawar over-estimates his political capacity and has announced that under his leadership, the party will be able to greatly improve upon its performance in the next Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections. But Ajit Pawar should not forget that he could not get his son elected to the Lok Sabha — he lost the election with a margin of over two lakh votes. Just as a geo-stationary satellite needs a strong thrust to send it into space, Ajit Pawar had a great launchpad in his uncle Sharad Pawar, to enter electoral politics.
It is clear that the rebellions by Shinde and Pawar were engineered by the BJP, and the party leaders have at least accepted the party’s role inShinde’s revolt. For the followers of the BJP it was a great masterstroke by the party and its leaders. The BJP may have been victorious in its power game, but the losers are not the Shiv Sena or the NCP — the loser is our democracy.
The BJP has made a mockery of democracy by making elected representatives cross the floor and join it, betraying the voters — something the party has been doing in different states in the country even as people are silent on the assault against democracy.
The author is a senior journalist and media trainer. He tweets at @a_mokashi
