Weekly interview
Deepak Pawar, a well-known activist for promotion of the Marathi language and Professor in the Political Science department of the Mumbai University, while speaking with Pramod Chunchuwar, political editor of the Free Press Journal says if the Shiv Sena joins hands with the NCP-Congress alliance, it will be a good step towards the betterment of Maharashtra and Marathi Manoos. He says the Sena should now snap ties with Hindutva, and the Congress should rethink on secular politics and the NCP must review their caste politics.
Questions: What is your first reaction on the Assembly poll results?
Answer: This election was not fought on state issues. The ruling parties had claimed they would win 220-plus seats, and had highlighted national issues such as Article 370 and national security during their campaign. Real issues like agrarian crisis, water scarcity and unemployment were not at the centre-stage. The NCP and the Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) had aggressively raised people-centric issues. The Congress was not much active in the field. The mandate is a mixed-bag. The performance of MNS and the VBA was good in terms of the vote percentage polled. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had appealed to the electorate not to press NOTA. But, the voters expressed their anger in some constituencies and rejected all the party candidates.
Question: Vanchit is now being targeted for sabotaging Congress-NCP candidates. They are also called the B-team of the BJP. What is your opinion?
Answer: People are making tall claims about Vanchit and BJP connections, and a financial deal between the two parties. It is inappropriate to speculate without knowing anything first hand. It is true the Congress and the NCP were damaged by Vanchit candidates, but it happened due to the Maratha-oriented politics of the Congress-NCP combine. Even the MNS was labelled as a B-team of the Congress-NCP in the past. Vanchit represents the marginalised castes, which are neglected by the mainstream parties such as Congress and NCP. While announcing candidates for the general election, Vanchit also announced their castes. But, Congress and NCP did not learn a lesson during ticket distribution for the Assembly election.
Question: How do you analyse the Congress-NCP performance?
Answer: The fight was led by NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Congress did not fight on the ground. The three former chief ministers -- Prithviraj Chavan, Ashok Chavan and Sushilkumar Shinde -- were active only in their own constituencies. Congress fought the battle with defeatist mind-set. Had they campaigned against the arrogance of the BJP, its mega-recruitment by poaching leaders from other parties, misuse of ED, the picture would have been better. The vacuum at the central-level of Congress, too, hit the party. On the contrary, Pawar took poaching by BJP as a challenge. Despite having huge funds, Congress leaders did not spend money on election.
Question: When in power Congress CM Prithviraj Chavan had tried to damage NCP. But in this election, the party went with NCP?
Answer: It was a blunder by Prithviraj. He tried to paint NCP as a corrupt party and portray Congress and himself as honest. But voters are smart, they can use their head and make out that if NCP was corrupt then why in the first place Congress shared power with them. Chavan cultivated his image as an honest leader by using his friendship in the media. He dug a grave for NCP, but Congress finally fell into it.
Question: Do you think the mega-recruitment of leaders boomeranged on BJP?
Answer: Yes. People did not like it. Even their core voters disapproved this. In the past too, leaders have become turncoat. Chhagan Bhujbal had joined Congress and he was kept in hiding for safety. Narayan Rane, too, had switched over to Congress. But in those times, the defection was done with a sense of guilt. It was not projected as a big achievement by parties. This time around, 10 to 20 leaders were given entry into the BJP in a big function. BJP claimed that in NCP, no one will stay except for Pawar. BJP's core supporters were upset with this. Those who joined BJP were given protection from inquiries and arrests. Such TV news reports disappointed the common man. In Gondia, despite having a good candidate, Congress legislator Gopal Agrawal was given entry into the party and BJP leader Vinod Agrawal revolted against him. Voters supported Vinod Agrawal and he emerged victorious. Earlier, BJP used to criticise Sharad Pawar and Congress for giving ticket to goons and corrupt people, saying they gave tickets to deserving candidates, based on merit. BJP followed the same model.
Question: Though there is a serious agrarian crisis. The number of seats won by the BJP-Sena alliance does not reflect it. Why?
Answer: Farmers are always at the centre of politics. Whichever party is in the opposition uses the crisis to criticise the government. During the Lok Sabha election, nationalism had diverted the attention from the major agrarian issue. During the election, farmers' issue became secondary and candidate's caste and economic prowess became primary. Opposition could not highlight the failure of Jalayukta Shivar and plights of people due to drought. Though Vanchit manifesto had mentioned these issues, the primary identity of this party is: it is a party of dalits. Dalits are largely marginal land-holders or without any land.
Question: After 2014, media are blamed for being pro-BJP or pro-government in Maharashtra. Press did not highlight issues like corruption, farmers' suicides the way they did during the Congress-NCP regime. What is your observation?
Answer: Since 2013, the media have tilted towards the BJP. RSS and BJP supporters, who were in the dormant mode in the media, became active. When the Congress-NCP alliance was in power in the state and at the Centre, it used to fight for Marathi language and Marathi schools. In those days, Doordarshan and All India Radio used to call me and give me time to raise my voice on the issue. The Fadanvis government opposed paying tributes to Govind Pansare in the legislature, citing that he was not a member of any House. While speaking on AIR, I opposed it and drew attention to the fact that author PL Deshpande and Balasaheb Thackeray were paid tributes in the legislature even though they were never the members. BJP legislator Parag Alvani called up AIR and objected to my comment. Since then, AIR has stopped calling me. DD calls me up some time but guest coordinator asks me if I would speak against the government. Earlier, leaders used to manage individual journalists. But now, the BJP is managing the owners of the media houses. Journalists 'loyal' to RSS are upset with Fadnavis' poor performance. They compromised their conscience and chose to keep silent even though thousands of farmers hanged themselves.
Question: BJP-Sena sought mandate in the name of good governance and they got it too. Is it not wrong that they are not forming a government?
Answer: In 2014, the BJP and the Sena fought against each other, but joined hands post-election. This time around, they should have formed the government as they got a clear mandate. The Sena should have snapped ties with BJP during the Lok Sabha election. It was a good opportunity for them to emerge as a strong regional force and a better alternative. They might have lost some Lok Sabha seats, but in the Assembly election, they would have gained. Despite joining hands with the BJP, their strength was reduced. Over the last 5 years, the BJP gave them few important portfolios. Now, the Sena wants to teach BJP a lesson. For the BJP, the Shiv Sena is an internal enemy and on their hit list. The BJP cannot use ED against Uddhav Thackeray as it did for other leaders. The BJP will have to promise and give them CM post on a rotational basis.
Question: If formed, will the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government survive?
Answer: The Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government may not last long, as the BJP will not allow this government to survive for a long time. The BJP will do anything and everything to bring this down government, the way it toppled the government in Karnataka. The issues of Articles 370 and 35A and Ram Mandir may divide the Sena-NCP alliance. They will have to finalise a common minimum programme. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar shares good relations with the Thackeray family and Shiv Sena. Uddhav Thackeray can lead this government.
Question: Will the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government be beneficial for the state?
Answer: Keeping in mind the interests of Marathi Manoos and Maharashtra in general, the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government will be beneficial. The Sena had almost parted ways with the core Marathi Manoos issues after they joined hands with the BJP on Hindutva plank. The Sena and the NCP are Maharashtra-based Marathi Manoos regional parties. They will always have a Maharashtra-first policy. For instance, a committee headed by Sadanand More submitted a report on the Marathi language policy in 2016. Even after three years, it is yet to be implemented. When asked, we were told that the government was getting opinion of various government departments. For the last three years, they have been taking opinions, and there is no implementation of the policy. Despite sending a strong proposal to give Marathi the status of classical language, the BJP-led central government did not accord this status to Marathi. The Sena was not aggressive for Marathi due to Hindutva politics, but if they form a government with NCP, it will again return to its original agenda of Marathi Manoos, the sole purpose the party was floated.
Question: But such an alliance may damage secular image of the Congress and the NCP and Hindutvavadi image of the Sena. What do you think?
Answer: The Congress and the NCP have never been 100 per cent secular parties. They followed and used secularism as per their convenience. Sometimes, they played appeasement politics to appease Hindus, and sometimes they appeased Muslims. Even when the Congress was in power, riots took place first in 1984 and then in 1992. Despite being in power from 1999 to 2014, they did not bring to book the culprits of the 1992 riots. It means they silently supported the rioters.
The parties will have to tell Hindus that India is not Pakistan of Hindus. And, they will have to tell Muslims that not a single country where Muslims are in majority, is as liberal as India. The Shiv Sena, too, went to another extreme of Hindutva. All of them have to shed extremes in their ideologies. The Sena will have to say good bye to Hindutva politics. The Congress should revisit their secular ideology-based politics and the NCP should rethink on their caste politics.
