Incompetent Architects!

June 29, 2022 marked the end of an incompetent political framework in Maharashtra and it’s been over a year since then. Uddhav Thackeray, the leader of UBT group, will undoubtedly go down in history for being the architect of this erstwhile political framework. Even after changes occurring at a rapid pace within this framework, Uddhav Thackeray hasn’t changed a bit. It was owing to his sheer luck that he got himself crowned as Maharashtra’s chief minister. He enjoyed every bit of it, including managing the state’s affairs from the comfort of his house even during times of Covid-19. He did not mind pushing the state into crisis while he continued enjoying his chief ministership. Now, after having stepped down from the position, he continues to live in his illusionary world and hasn’t changed his political strategies even after a year.

Refusing to function under his incompetent leadership, Balasaheb’s loyalists in Shiv Sena defected from the party. Not just people from his party but even the Maha Vikas Aghadi suffered because of Uddhav Thackeray’s illusion about his leadership qualities. It is now crystal clear that Uddhav Thackeray was only responsible for the split in Shiv Sena. Tired of his dictatorship, the party suffered its biggest leak in 3 decades in June last year. In fact, it was not only in the last one year, but leaders who had left the party even earlier, attribute their defection to Uddhav Thackeray. Balasaheb had urged all those who had left the party to “return to his nest”. But Uddhav Thackeray never felt it likewise. On the contrary he had mocked at these disgruntled people by saying ‘Udale te kaawle, rahile te maawle’ (good riddance for those who left, while those who stayed back are the true mavalas). He never realized this leak in his party organization and one day he had to let go of his chief ministerial position as well.

Uddhav Thackeray became infamous for the chaos within the Shiv Sena and after having brought an end to the Shiv Sena founded by Balasaheb, his self-absorbed focus shifted towards the MVA. Its testimony is the vertical split in the Nationalist Congress Party, an MVA partner. It is no longer a secret that within a year of a vertical split in the Shiv Sena, the NCP got split with Ajitdada’s faction defecting from the party and accepting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s abled leadership and his developmental policies. Interestingly, these senior leaders, later admitted how they were suffocated while working under Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership during the 3 years of MVA government from 2019 to 2022. Ajitdada’s rebel busted the secret that Uddhav Thackeray’s incompetent leadership had damaged the MVA and Maharashtra as a whole.

For the monsoon session that concluded on Friday last week, Uddhav Thackeray did exactly what he used to do during pandemic when he had managed the state’s affairs from the comfort of his house. People will recollect how he used to make public appearances only through his social media handles. Throughout the session, he barely set foot in Vidhan Bhawan. Probably he must have felt it below his dignity to be present as an ordinary member of the Legislative Council, especially after having served as the chief minister when he had rampantly misused his position to taunt the then Opposition.

During pandemic when people were expectantly looking up to the government, he remained indoors. And the day he stepped out to go to Mantralaya, it became a moment of celebration for the state. The news ‘Uddhav Thackeray reaches Mantralaya’ became headlines. Never before had such news made it to the headlines, but Maharashtra had longed to hear about it and probably even he wanted to derive pleasure by this kind of attention from the media. And he did the same thing when he stepped in Vidhan Bhawan for a joint meeting of Opposition parties. The media also glorified it with a slight change – instead of stating Mantralaya the headlines read Vidhan Bhawan, that’s it.

While tendering his resignation as the chief minister, Thackeray also announced his resignation as member of the Legislative Council in his ‘heart-melting’ speech. Probably some close aide must have advised him that public memory is short-lived. And hence, later, neither did he step down as member of the Legislative Council nor did he consciously utter a word about it. He should have given at least some justice to his responsibility as a member of the Legislative Council. Anyway.

All that Thackeray did was to preach during his tenure as the chief minister. And the moment he lost power, party and symbol, he turned his back to his responsibilities as the member of the Legislature. And in the bargain, he left the Maha Vikas Aghadi also in a lurch. If a leader is apathetic, his followers are expected to be indifferent. MVA was anyway a lost bet; it came into being with an understanding that they will ally as long as they can back each other and the moment things don’t fall in place, it will get dissolved. And people saw how the Aghadi was struggling during the recently concluded monsoon session.

The Nationalist Congress Party, a crucial partner in the MVA, parted ways and joined hands with the ‘Maha Yuti’ and the Congress experienced dejection over the position of the Leader of the Opposition. It was so unfortunate, that till the last day of this session, Congress was unable to elect its leader for the House. Due to this disagreeable understanding, the gap between the parties of the MVA widened and it will not take too long when we will see this triple-engine rickshaw of the MVA getting scrapped. Still, Uddhav Thackeray is in no mood to come out of his self-absorption.

Recently, efforts were said to be underway to build a nationwide alliance of like-minded parties against the Modi government at the Centre. Although it isn’t a rumour, still the possibility of all these parties coming together seems like a distant possibility. Reason – the enthusiasm exhibited by Uddhav Thackeray during the initial phase of this alliance seems to have faded. Congress in the state does not seem to be interested in allying with the Thackerays, the NCP has already formed an alliance with the BJP and there are hardly any leaders left with the Thackeray faction. Most of these are staunch Balasaheb loyalists and are eager to leave Uddhav Thackeray and join hands with Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde.

After Eknath Shinde’s split, the Thackeray group kept shouting ‘pannas khoke….ekdum ok’. Some members of the MVA had to also sing to the tune without any choice. It was only during this monsoon session that the mystery revolving around ‘pannas khoke’ was revealed – this declaration was not an indictment of the Shinde group but was a clarification that Shinde-led Shiv Sena had in fact provided the ‘pannas khoke’ to the Thackeray group. Chief minister Eknath Shinde unfolded this mystery during the monsoon session. Unfortunately, those working under the leadership of Aditya Thackeray were unaware about this mystery and hence they kept shouting but today it has fallen flat.

You do not need an astrologer to predict that owing to a self-absorbed Thackeray, an utterly confused bunch of leaders and an unethical style of politics, the Maha Vikas Aghadi will soon become an unmanageable affair. If Thackeray, who had managed to win a few seats with support from the BJP, had ably and responsibly led the alliance, today he would have got complete support from at least three parties. I wonder, who will now bridge the gap between these parties as they neither have the strength nor the will to support each other.

 

(Article Pre-Published in Times of India -07 August. 2023)

Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson