Ek Chatur Naar Badi Hoshiyar

Political games that are now dominating in Maharashtra with break-up of Shiv Sena & NCP are bound to come to an end soon as responsible Congress leaders are among the younger generation realize, that progress & prosperity of Maharasthra is more important than the growth of select families and the rise of smaller fiefdoms. The great leader of the yesteryears like Late Sh Y.B.Chavan, Late Sh. Vasant Dada Patil & Late Rajaram Bapu Patil or Late Sh Shankarrao Mohite Patil or Late Sh. P.K.Sawant must be wondering in heavens, why their own successors have not risen to the occasion. Why none of them accepted the challenge of rebuilding Maharashtra and addressing the issues of massive unemployment, rising prices of all essential items, depleting agricultural incomes, rising indebtedness and domination of the political arena by criminals & gangsters.

If one traces the origins of the current political malaise and breakdown of leadership in the state, one has to go to back to the legacy of leadership inherited by our so called Maratha leaders. Far from being builders of Maharashtra, we find them to be only builders of their own fortunes. In Maharashtra, NCP was an amalgam of three group brought under one umbrella in 1999 by Sharad Pawar, who is the new ‘Saheb’ of Maharashtra. The move was aimed mainly to achieve the demolition of Congress party that had begun the process of building Maharashtra in the year 1960 onwards, and to which Sharad Pawar was readmitted in the year 1986 by Late Sh Rajiv ji.

1) Those who were brought in by negotiations (N)
2) Those who were original Congressmen (IC)
3) Those who were Pawar loyalists (P)

Sharad Pawar got entry in politics as the ‘politically adopted son’ of Late Y.B.Chavan who was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra until 1963. Sh Y.B. Chavan became famous as the Union Defence Minister after war with Pakistan. Mr Sharad Pawar after initial years in youth Congress got MLA ticket in 1967 and became legislator. The years 1967 to 1971 were years of upheaval within the Indian National Congress Party. Late Sh Y.B. Chavan’s personal ambitions after the demise of Late Lal Bahadur Shastri has exposed him and he was seen as the fence-sitter when he had voted with Smt Indiraji’s conscience choice Late Sh V.V. Giri as the Presidential candidate, whereas the Maharashtra Congress party under Chief Minister Sh. V.P. Naik had voted for official Congress candidate Mr Sanjeeva Reddy. It was believed that this was engineered by Late Y.B.Chavan’s machinations. This is how perhaps Sharad Pawar learnt the political games of hunting with the hounds & running with the heirs.

Sharad Pawar became M.O.S. in 1971 cabinet of Late Sh. V.P.Naik and after 1972 elections got re-elected as MLA. Indiraji had secured huge majority in the Lok Sabha. The divided Congress saw the marginalization of smaller faction of Congress known as (Cong-O). Mr Y.B. Chavan did get a place in the Union Cabinet, however, his nominee in Maharashtra Mr V.P.Naik was replaced by Sh Shaankarrao Chavan as the new Chief Minister. There was also a new party President in Maharashtra Late Mr P K Sawant who was not the nominee of Late Sh Y.B.Chavan. Sharad Pawar had quietly shifted his loyalty from Mr Y.B. Chavan to the new party boss of Mumbai Congress, late Mr Rajini Patel. She had persuaded Late Sh. Shankarrao Chavan to include Mr Sharad Pawar in his cabinet. Sharad Pawar had realized that his name Sharad Chandra could shine only as only as the source of light from Delhi was favourable to him. That source of light for him was the power of Union government – which he had accessed through Late Barrister Rajini Patel.

After the emergency ended the power game and the power sources had changed at the Centre as well as in Maharashtra. After getting a berth in the coalition govt in 1978 formed under Late Sh Vasant Dada Patil, Mr Sharad Pawar played his big gamble and engineered a coup and formed Progressive Democratic Front govt. in collaboration with the Janata Party ruling at the national level and fully exploited the name & goodwill of Late Sh Y.B. Chavan in Maharashtra to secure the public support for his PDF government. He had betrayed Vasant Dada Patil who was toppled by him as the Chief Minister of coalition government formed by two Congress factions – Cong (S) and Cong (I). The local mentor of Sharad Pawar, Late Vasant Dada Patil was devastated. The blame was squarely placed on Late Y.B. Chavan who was totally unaware of P.D.F. coup and equally taken by surprise. This is how the mighty Congress party was seriously injured and crippled in Maharashtra in 1978. Money power came into play for the first time in Maharashtra politics. Sharad Pawar could be called the father of new political featured of Maharashtra power politics.

Indiraji however rebuilt her public support by her personal tours & meetings with people during 1978-79. In 1980, when she returned to power at the Centre, she sacked the P.D.F. government of Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra and in the Assembly elections that followed Sharad Pawar’s Congress (S) got some 50 plus MLAs only. Most of them however returned to the original Congress party along with Late Sh Y.B. Chavan in june of 1980. Sharad Pawar boasted that he would rebuild his faction of Congress, however he remained in wilderness, until he re-admitted to Indian National Congress by Rajiv ji in 1986. This is how he regained his shine as leader in Maharashtra.

In the following years, Sharad Pawar realized that without connect with the source of power that rules the country his leadership had no significant voter value in Maharashtra. Maharashtra is a huge state divided in six main regions namely Mumbai, Konkan, Wetern Maharashtra where Sharad Pawar had some following, Marathwada, Khandesh and Vidarbha. It is for this realization by Pawar that he does not dare to relinquish his connect with newly formed I.N.D.I.A. For the survival of the rest of the party satraps and by way of insurance against ED & CBI culture of BJP, he has let them go and join the government of Maharashtra under BJP. That too is mainly because that continues to be source of shine & power ‘repeating the old theory of hunting with the hounds and running with the heirs.’ Maratha character of being originally the mercenary forces alternating between the Nizamshahi and Adilshahi has never ceased to be relevant and has dominated their character. N.C.P. thus is playing the role of a (Chatur Naar…)

Disclaimer: The above views are the personal views of the author.