Storm over Sharad Pawar’s resignation as NCP president
was not fully settled yet, when this article was written, however Pawar’s
resignation as a president and its impact on state politics is not the subject
of this article. This article is about the revelations Pawar made in the second
edition of his autobiography ‘Lok Majhe Sangati’. He has thrown light on
developments in the state politics post 2019 assembly elections through his own
prism. The second edition of his autobiography is nothing but confession of his
blunders. Pawar is often referred to with adjectives like smart, wily, astute,
shrewd, perceptive etc. Many examples of his ingenuity have become part of the
state’s political folklore. No one can deny his contribution in fields of
agriculture, cooperation and education. It is also widely believed that updated
dossiers on politicians from all parties are in his sleeves. He also uses these
dossiers to solve tricky political equations. However, the subject of this
article is disclosures which Pawar has made in his autobiography.
The results of 2019 elections were announced and it was
generally believed that, government of Mahayuti (Grand Alliance) led by BJP
will return to office. However even as results were being announced Shiv Sena
party chief Uddhav Thackeray with intention to betray BJP and sole ambition of
becoming chief minister started throwing dice and exploring possibilities for
becoming chief minister. As a result, one unnatural alliance of Sena, NCP and
Congress came to power in the state, all of us know this history, so won’t
delve upon it.
The government of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is recorded in
the state’s history as a black chapter. Within three to four months of the MVA
government coming to power, the Corona epidemic started. Highest cases of
Corona deaths and spread were recorded in Maharashtra in the country.
However during this challenging period, the state
witnessed many examples of Uddhav Thackeray’s carefree, perfecuntory and
sluggish attitude towards administration. During this entire period Thackeray
visited Mantralaya, the nerve centre of state’s administration just twice or
thrice. His style of running state administration from the home of a vast state
like Maharashtra became the subject of ridicule. However, Uddhav Thackeray
shamelessly defended his Work from Home (WFH) style of functioning. Pawar
expressed displeasure over Uddhav’s attitude in the autobiography. It was
expected that Uddhav Thackeray would tour the state, take stock of the
situation and guide the state’s health machinery in combating Covid. However,
health minister in his government Rajesh Tope was tirelessly working to ensure
the state has coordinated response with the Centre in its fight against
Covid-19. Once Tope while on tour after seeing the condition of the hospital
tried to call Thackeray several times to get his help but Thackeray who suffers
from huberies didn’t even bother to pick up Tope’s call. What is more
surprising is that Pawar who showed exemplary command over administration
during Latur-Osmanabad earthquake in 1993 and handled the situation with
deftness didn’t find Thackeray’s behaviour callous and didn’t bother to give
some wise counsel to Thackeray. He prefered to keep mum.
Earlier in this article I have already mentioned that,
Pawar has updated dossiers on all political leaders in the state, so it is hard
to believe that Pawar was not aware about Thackeray’s inept attitude and low
intelligence. However, only with the aim of keeping BJP out of power and
keeping Devendra Fadnavis away from occupying the chair of chief minister Pawar
stitched this unholy alliance. Initially Congress was reluctant to join this
alliance, but Pawar used all his diplomatic skills to bring Congress on board
and saddled Maharashtra with inefficient and incapable leadership of Thackeray.
After taking reins of Shiv Sena, Thackeray maintained firm grip on the
functioning of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and Pawar was
fully aware about the ‘achivements’ of MCGM under Thackeray’s leadership. Even
as that may be Pawar used all the political capitalhe earned in his 60 years of
political life to make the treacherous Thackeray chief minister of Maharashtra.
It was expected that Pawar would guide this government but Thackeray completely
sidelined Pawar Saheb and Congress leadership while running the government and
ran government according to his fancies.
There is a custom in one particular religion of
confessing your sins and mistakes before a priest. Pawar has partially
confessed about his mistakes in his autobiography; however this won’t wash away
his sins. Pawar also confessed that he lied about the 13th blast in Mumbai in
1993 in a minority dominated area. He also said in his autobiography, it was
easy to have dialogue with Balasaheb but such natural dialogue was not possible
with Uddhav. Pawar has also exposed one more lie spread by Uddhav and his
disciples that, central government wants to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra
and hand it Gujarat. Pawar in his autobiography has categorically stated that,
there is no such conspiracy and we should give full stop to discussion on this
topic. Just like Dhrutrashtra because of his love for son denied the rightful
claim of Pandavas to the throne of Hastinapur and made Duryodhan crown prince,
Pawar’s sin of making Uddhav chief minister of Maharashtra is of the same
magnitude.
Because of the sufferings of Maharashtra’s people in MVA
regime, Pawar’s confessions have no meaning and they are being too little too
late.I would like to end this article with a rough translation of Saint
Tukaram’s quote, “Even if you think, people don’t know what you are doing,
people very well know what you do, so there is no point in making confession
after committing sin.”
(Article Pre-Published in Times of India Online –07 May 2023)
Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson
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