Commentary/Saisuresh Sivaswamy
The fall of the Maratha
History, goes the well-worn cliche, repeats itself. And in the
case of Maharashtra, the cliche has been in a state of overuse.
The reference is to the sons of the soil's attempt to come to
a position of pre-eminence in New Delhi, something that seems
to have urged men since the days of the great Maratha warrior
and the exemplar to latter day politicians, Shivaji Maharaj.
But whatever the men from Maharashtra did, New Delhi remained
a distant dream, and in the case of the latest claimant to the
brave legacy, Sharad Pawar, the tense changes to the present continuous.
Enough comparisons have been made between him and his mentor,
Yashwantrao Chavan who reached the highest post a person shorn
of the magic of the Gandhi surname could in New Delhi, namely
the deputy prime ministership. In the protege's case, however,
indications are that he has shot his bolt, and his present status
is the highest he could hope to achieve in the corridors of power.
Sharad Pawar, in fact, could well become the first politician
who would have nowhere to run. With a canny sense of timing he
pulled himself out of his home-state after leading his party to
its first electoral reverse, and declared that New Delhi was his
next aim. But with the doors to Maharashtra locked and those to
the national capital nowhere showing signs of opening up, he could
end up becoming the Trishanku of Indian politics.
Of course, he is not entirely to be blamed. Perhaps one could
fault him on leaving behind his party in a shambles, doing nothing
to rebuild it, and cavalierly moving on to greener pastures. His
administration in Maharashtra, the one he led to defeat, must
surely rank among the most unpopular ones in the state. For none
of his known administrative skills could have him from the ignominy
of the whisper campaign that successfully linked him to the Mafia.
Forget that there was not an iota of evidence to back
up this slander, but the people, who had seen the state burn in
the communal conflagration when he was defence minister and whose
superior presence seemed to have tied up the local government
in knots, were ready to believe the worst about him. Ergo. The
rout of 1995.
Gone overnight with it was the sobriquets, strongman
of Maharashtra. What he ought to have done was to stay and fight,
as the other Maratha from history did against the Mughals. Instead,
Pawar chose to take flight, leaving behind his party in the hands
of rookie Congressmen like Chhagan Bhujbal who, despite all the
hype and hoopla, was worsted by a Sena novice in his constituency.
Pawar also forgot an important lesson that must be borne by any
satrap with dreams of national conquest, which is to keep the
home turf intact.
At the time of Pawar's changeover, his party
had a commanding position among the state MPs, most of whom owed
their allegiance to him, and to the wafer-thin majority government
of P V Narasimha Rao the number must have seemed gargantuan. The
tables were turned in the Lok Sabha elections the next year, when
the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party overran the state.
What could have stemmed the Thackeray charisma was Sharad Pawar's,
but he had already squandered it when he chose to forego the state
for the Centre.
With his party out of power in New Delhi, and not having a sizeable
number of MPs with him, where does Pawar go beyond the floor coordinator's
job in the Lok Sabha?
Even a little introspection on his part would lead to enlightenment
that there isn't much he could hope to achieve clinging on the
New Delhi. Naturally, being in politics, where the ultimate aim
is the top job -- a process made that much easier since the eclipse
of charisma in the capital -- Pawar is keen on bidding for the prime
ministership, whenever the opportunity presents itself, from within
the Congress party or without.
From the party, of course there is no dearth of bidders, and some
of them with a greater claim on the top job than, say, Pawar,
whose Congressism is of recent origin. Anyway, the need of the
moment for the Congress party is a vote-catcher, and Pawar's record
in this front, judging by his party's performance back home in
Maharashtra, is anything but heart-warming.
The option, then, is to lead a ginger group out and with the help
of 'friendly' members of Parliament who could be persuaded, to
bid for the prime ministership, a line of thinking helped along
by the fact that the incumbent, one year ago, had little clue
of what awaited him. Also, Pawar is no stranger to this technique,
having perfected it in Maharashtra in the 1970s. But the United
Front is no Progressive Democratic Front., and to even think so,
Pawar needs to keep his home-state secure.
Other than this, what
has happened almost simultaneously with Pawar's shift to New Delhi
is the fading out of the national parties and he dawn of the regional
party. It is no exaggeration to say that today, TMC or the TDP
carry more weight in the capital than the Congress. If Pawar is
serious about the Centre, then he needs to recapture Maharashtra,
either as a Congressman or otherwise, and personally his chances
are brighter if it is the latter option he chooses.
Maybe Pawar should delve a little into local history. There is
no harm in aspiring to be a national leader like Shivaji Maharaj,
but that Pawar needs to be reminded of here is that Shivaji was
never a 'national' warrior in that he did not rule the nation.
He was an extraordinary provincial king whose fame had spread
to the country's corners.
Perhaps there is a lesson that Pawar could learn from here. Which
is that rather than chase a chimera, he would do well to refocus
on his state. He could rebuild his organisation from scratch,
win back the confidence of his people, and be a true regional
leader whose fame would cross all bounds.
Sigh, but that is easier said that done. For men like Pawar are
driven by a higher ambition, which keeps pushing higher and higher
till, in true lcarus style, they perish in trying to achieve it.
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