When a banyan tree falls, the earth shakes. It is a debatable point whether the exit of veteran politician Sharad Pawar from the leadership of his own Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has created any shock within the party or in Maharashtra. Pawar, through his seven decades of political activism survived odds, ditched the Congress, formed his own party, returned to the Congress, became Union minister, handled key departments and then formed another party by rubbishing Sonia Gandhi. He had also functioned as chief minister of Maharashtra. Even in recent years, he straddled the politics in his state with confidence and flaunted the ‘national’ character of his state-level party by questionable methods that also formed a model for Mamata Baneree and others to emulate. What they all had was large stocks of money to splurge. Pawar is now crest-fallen. His nephew is reportedly in a mood to break the NCP and take away most of its legislators to bargain for the CM’s post in a new political alliance. Considering Pawar’s advancing age and ill health, most MLAs of the party would likely side with the nephew. That could leave Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule too in the lurch. She can neither disown her father nor afford to lose her political clout.
Notably, regional satraps like Sharad Pawar raised their heads only by taking advantage of the weakening of the Congress party at the national and state levels. Ideally, India should have two national parties with matching might so that the people will not be taken for granted. On the other hand, if a hotch-potch of regional parties join hands and form the government at the Centre, chances are that it would fall in a matter of months. Such parties are not guided by any ideology or a commitment to the nation. Many of these are family enterprises and their tendency is mainly to take a huge cut from every government deal and create individual empires of their own.
To cite one recent instance, Sharad Pawar ably defended his nominee Anil Deshmukh, who as home minister allegedly asked the Mumbai police to collect and give him Rs 100 crore as bribe from bars in Mumbai every month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi once publicly called NCP the Nationalist Corruption Party. Most regional parties are engaged in a political circus without a ring. Note how Telangana’s chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao built the state secretariat in the format of a mosque and named it after Dr BR Ambedkar. The elections there are eight months away but he has shrewdly reserved the support of two principal communities there. This is the India of today.