FPJ Editorial: Betrayal Begets Betrayal

We regretfully return to the flux in Maharashtra politics. Once, by all accounts, one of the better governed States in the country, the administration has now slipped like every other facet of public life. Pressures of divisive power politics, an increasing role of money power, and the entry of unabashed carpetbaggers in public life whose only objective is to get rich quick using the levers of power only partially explains the rut. It is the general decline in moral and political norms and values all over the country which has made venality commonplace in politics.

Gone are the role models who entered public life to serve the people without enriching themselves and their extended families while wielding power. Like it or not, there are no exemplars in politics any longer. The other day NCP leader Sharad Pawar called nephew Ajit corrupt, suggesting that it was the fear of the ED and CBI which had made him desert him. Had the NCP patriarch cared to look in the mirror he would not have accused Ajit, or, for that matter, anyone else of being corrupt. The fortunes of the Pawar parivar have grown enormously since he joined politics back in 1967.

The issue of Corruption

Anyway, corruption is a non-issue even with the voters, who have become so cynical that even when a convicted felon like Laloo Yadav draws support from his Yadav caste brothers, and son Tejashwi is the deputy chief minister of Bihar, no stigma is attached to them when it comes to the voting preferences of the people. In Bihar, come way may they will vote their caste, wouldn’t they? Instead of blaming Ajit for deserting the NCP tent and seeking shelter in the bigger one of the BJP, Pawar senior ought to ponder over the fact that he was being unfair to his nephew.

He had toiled long and hard to grow NCP but when it came to succession he handed over the keys of the NCP, in whose growth the contribution of Ajit cannot be denied, to his daughter Supriya. It ought to have been clear to Ajit when, in spite of the NCP getting more seats than the Congress, senior Pawar had allowed the latter to head the ministry. Clearly, he did not want Ajit to acquire a higher profile which would latter come in the way of his nominating his daughter as his political legatee.

As for Devendra Fadnavis, it is undeniable that ever since Uddhav Thackeray ditched him after contesting the election with the BJP, and winning fewer seats than the latter, on the questionable claim that he ought to be made chief minister, the former chief minister has been looking for “revenge”. After all, in politics too it takes two to tango, two to play the betrayal game. Thus, Fadnavis had Ajit as his deputy in a short-lived government which had the blessings of Pawar senior — as admitted recently by him — and when Ajit went back he wooed a section of the Shiv Sena which was seething with anger at Uddhav Thackeray for partnering with the ideological opposite of the Hindutva party.

And now when Ajit felt left out in the cold by the changes effected by the NCP chief in the organisational hierarchy, it was only a matter of time before he parted company with the uncle who had used him as cannon fodder and cast him aside, virtually handing over the control of the NCP to Sule. In short, if Pawar senior feels betrayed he asked for it, blinded by his love for his relatively inexperienced daughter.

The decision to nominate Supriya Sule as effective number 2

The fact that a number of his senior most colleagues too have followed Ajit into an alliance with the BJP-Sena reveals a widespread resentment and unhappiness at the decision to nominate Sule as the effective number two in the NCP. Expecting that all those who were loyal to Pawar senior would now transfer loyalty to his daughter smacks of feudalism. Pawar senior erred grievously by propping up his daughter over some of the more deserving