People's Democracy

MAHARASHTRA

  Secular Forces Face Pawar’s About-Turn

  Suman Sanzgiri

MAHARASHTRA witnessed rapid political developments in the run up to the impending general elections. With the powerful deputy chief minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader, Chhagan Bhujbal, ultimately forced to resign from the government, the political manoeuvring among the bourgeoisie parties saw a sharp rise.

The NCP chief, Sharad Pawar, announced that his party is open to an alliance with the BJP-Sena combine. Though no one expected that the removal of Bhujbal would be a step towards removing a major obstacle to the likely tie-up of the NCP with the Sena-BJP, in effect that is what seems to have happened. It may be recalled that Bhujbal was once the right hand man of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. He deserted the Sena, joined the Congress and was a key figure in the formation of the Congress-NCP alliance government. Thackeray had been saying that unless Bhujbal is out of the scene there cannot be any consideration of a tie-up with the NCP.

Earlier, Sonia Gandhi addressing a huge rally in Mumbai on December 27 expressed her willingness to negotiate with secular parties, including the NCP, for forging an electoral alliance to defeat the Sena-BJP. She also underplayed the issue of prime ministerial candidate saying it was up to the people to decide. Many observers felt it was a sop to Sharad Pawar. He also responded positively indicating that he would not press the issue of Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin. It appeared that the chief minister and Congress CWC member, Sushil Kumar Shinde, had been in touch with Sharad Pawar to remove the irritants for forging a pre-poll alliance between the two parties. In fact, the leaders of these two parties were reported to be preparing for talks on seat sharing.

PAWAR’S TRUE COLOURS?

With the Democratic Front government’s numerous failures and rising discontent among the people, the necessity of facing the coming polls with a firm alliance has been realised by these bourgeoisie parties.

The deputy prime minister and BJP leader, L K Advani, visited Mumbai on January 1 to hold talks with the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. After the talks it was leaked out to the media that the two had discussed the issue of taking Sharad Pawar and his NCP into the NDA fold. With five constituent parties having deserted the NDA in recent days and with the BJP facing likely reverses in UP and Bihar, it was perhaps natural for the BJP bosses to seek new allies. Obviously, Sharad Pawar was a prime candidate as it may be recalled that it was Pawar who in 1999 split the Congress on the issue of Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin. It was because of this spilt that Sena-BJP combine could get 28 out of the 48 parliamentary seats in Maharashtra, thereby helping the NDA return to power. If the Congress and the NCP were to come together in a prepoll alliance even today, they can rout the Sena-BJP alliance. To prevent such an eventuality was Advani’s main objective, and for this he had to persuade Thackeray to agree to Pawar’s entry into the NDA. In fact, two months back Thackeray had suddenly issued a statement that the Sena would never agree to ally with Pawar and the NCP. Since there was no immediate provocation for such a statement, the move must have been made to sound Pawar at that time.

Though Sharad Pawar has always been loudly proclaiming his secular credentials, people always had doubts about his bonafides. These doubts were confirmed during the 1999 elections. Recent steps of his have only further strengthened these doubts. Pawar elevated Vijay Singh Mohite Patil, a top Maratha leader of the NCP and public works minister in the DF government, to the deputy chief minister’s post in place of Chhagan Bhujbal. It was this same Patil who had actively worked to defeat the Congress and get his own brother elected to Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket in a constituency vacated by the chief minister Shinde. Similarly, another NCP leader, Datta Meghe, has got his son elected to the Legislative Coulcil on a BJP ticket. In fact, the Congress has suffered reverses in Zillah Parishad elections due to the treachery of the NCP leaders.  Pawar’s love for V D Savarkar is also a link with the BJP’s Hindutva. It was Pawar who supported the installing of Savarkar’s portrait in the Parliament even when the opposition parties had opposed it. In Maharashtra also, it was at his insistence that the DF government raised no objection about the portrait being installed in the state Vidhan Sabha Hall.

To lessen the impact of his announcement, Pawar has stated that his party has three alternatives before it – to ally with the BJP or to ally with the Congress, or to be in a front comprising the Left parties. He has further clarified that no party should be considered untouchable in politics. However, the important thing to note is that all his life he has been proclaiming his staunch opposition to the sangh parivar and this is the first time that he has openly stated that he can ally with the communal parties.

This about-turn of Pawar has thrown his party into confusion. When the news first came of Pawar being considered for admission into the NDA, the NCP state president, R R Patil, strongly denied the reports as a deliberate lie designed to sow confusion among the ranks of the NCP. The deputy chief  minister, Mohite Patil, also issued a statement on these lines.

There was concern among the Shiv Sena leadership also due to Thackeray’s statement that Pawar can be admitted into the Sena-BJP combine provided Bhujbal is kept out. The Sena leaders are confident that their saffron alliance would come to power in the next elections and they have no need for Pawar to help them win. They feel it would only amount to adding a scheming partner for ministerial and other spoils. The relations between the rank and file of the two parties are also quite strained. It may be recalled that a NCP crowd ransacked the residence of Narayan Rane, Sena’s former chief minister, in his native village in his constituency last year.

DF GOVT’S POOR TRACK RECORD

The Democratic Front government comprising the major parties – Congress(I) and NCP – has been ruling Maharashtra for over four years. The front was formed after the 1999 assembly elections, in which the two Congress parties had fought each other. They came together after the polls but still were short of majority. The support of the Left parties ensured the formation of the DF government in the state.

However, the performance of the DF government in this period has alienated the common people. It had little to show on the development front, citing always the reason of the empty treasury it inherited from the previous Sena-BJP government for its inaction. With both the central and the state governments following the same anti-people economic policies, the crisis in industry and agricultural sectors continued unabated. The state witnessed the sad sight of scores of farmers committing suicides, as they were unable to bear the burden of debts. The unemployment levels reached a new high in the state.

With the desertion of five NCP MLA’s, the DF government was about to collapse in June 2002. It survived only because the assembly speaker exercised his powers and disqualified the deserting MLA’s and also due to the last minute support extended by the two CPI(M) MLA’s.  The two ruling partners of the DF government were indulging in public acrimony even when its survival was at stake.

Corruption was so rampant in the government that the High Court had to appoint a commission to enquire into the charges levelled against the five NCP ministers. Again, the High Court appointed a Special Investigation Team to enquire into the Telgi stamp paper scam. The SIT has so far arrested a number of high-ranking police officers, including Mumbai’s police commissioner for aiding and abetting Telgi and his gang.

The Sena-BJP opposition in the assembly targeted the home minister, Chhagan Bhujbal, and ran a public campaign demanding his resignation. Bhujbal tried to hit back in his aggressive and abrasive style but it was noted by all that his own party colleagues were not standing up to defend him. Actually, the scam had taken shape during the Sena-BJP government’s period. The union finance ministry was also responsible for the scam as it connived in the supply of machinery, paper and dyes from the security press at Nasik. Of the two MLA’s arrested by the SIT so far, one belongs to the Samajwadi Janata Party and the other to the Telugu Desam Party, both being the supporters of the BJP-led government at the centre.

It is in this situation that Sharad Pawar asked Bhujbal to resign. Pawar’s claim that Bhujbal had resigned on moral grounds accepting responsibility for the assault on Zee TV office by some NCP activists has no takers. People have no illusions about any of the leaders of these four bourgeois parties having such moral scruples. In fact, if Bhujbal had such moral scruples he would have resigned the moment high-ranking police officers working under him were arrested. Some were of the opinion that Pawar had his own doubts about the charges levelled against Bhujbal.

All in all, Sharad Pawar’s hobnobbing with the Sena-BJP shows that for power-seeking leaders like him it is easy to set aside their self-professed loyalty to secular ideals in order to bargain for their personal gains with even the communal forces. This situation emphasises the greater need for all the Left and democratic forces to redouble their efforts to campaign among the people for secularism and pro-people economic policies. The state committee of the CPI(M) is meeting on January 6-7 to review the situation and plan for rallying these forces in a state-wide campaign in February, coinciding with the call of the central committee.

(January 5, 2004)