It’s better to bow than to break

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar appears to have become a headache not only for the opposition but also the ruling combine. Cutting across party lines, politicians have joined hands against him.

His decision not to accommodate opposition members in the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana, coupled with greater allocation of funds to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) members, led to an ugly confrontation in the budget session. What aggravated the situation was his insistence to suspend five MLAs from the Sena and four from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the entire year. Such developments in the past week have resulted in a covert realignment of political forces against Pawar.

The opposition has already labelled him a “thagya (rogue)”. Moreover, senior leaders within the ruling alliance, too, have grievances about Pawar’s way of functioning. There are 53 of the total 63 NCP MLAs steadfastly behind Pawar, but several senior leaders complain about him privately. They support his decision to suspend MLAs for disrupting the budget speech but also hold him responsible for the acrimony.

What nobody wants to discuss, though, is why the coordination system within the ruling alliance has broken down. Going further, a section of senior NCP leaders groomed by party president Sharad Pawar cannot see eye to eye with Pawar junior. The crux of the problem lies in the deep-rooted power tussle within the NCP and Pawar’s inability to compromise.

NCP political managers maintain that Dada doesn’t listen to anybody. Home minister RR Patil and public works department minister Chhagan Bhujbal warned him against opposition backlash, but he did not pay any heed. Senior leaders in the government used to work towards building bridges with the opposition, but this was not seen in this session.

Cabinet ministers, most importantly the chief minister and his deputy, need to open channels to exchange pleasantries with the opposition to create a working atmosphere. Political emissaries need to exploit their personal equations with opposition leaders to ensure smooth functioning of the assembly.

But right from the beginning of the session, it was apparent that a section within the Congress was waiting to see chief minister Prithviraj Chavan bat on a slippery wicket. Similarly, there were some wolves in sheep’ clothing in the NCP, waiting for Pawar to land himself in trouble. Led by his ego, Pawar walked into the opposition’s trap.

Not withstanding the beating he has taken in his first budget presentation, one hopes he will display better sense in the coming days. After all, in politics, it is better to bow down a little to avoid a total breakdown of the democratic system.