What's Sharad Pawar up to these days? Well, he himself is not sure and that's precisely what many are citing as the reason for his downfall.
What's Sharad Pawar up to these days? Well, he himself is not sure and that's precisely what many are citing as the reason for his downfall.
The man who once challenged P V Narasimha Rao for the post of Prime Minister and angered the Congress by criticising Sonia Gandhi over her Italian roots seems to have only one pastime now – criticising minister for cooperation Chandrakant Patil.
Many see this as a sure sign of the 75-year-old sugar baron's decline.
According to veteran journalist Kumar Ketkar, Pawar's constant criticism of a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government is testimony of him hitting a political dead-end. For Pawar, ideology never mattered and politics meant changing positions. This is what has led to his fall, says Ketkar.
A political leader said on condition of anonymity: "Saheb should not have written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticising Fadnavis, Neither Modi nor Fadnavis has reacted to the letter."
Similarly, he said, neither Fadnavis or Patil has reacted to his criticism. Simply put, no one is taking Pawar seriously, he said.
According to Ketkar, Pawar should have maintained his dignity and accepted defeat both after the Lok Sabha and assembly elections. Instead, "he tried to create confusion as usual, like in the issue of providing outside and inside support to the BJP for keeping the Shiv Sena at bay. In the process, Pawar has stooped down from a national to a local leader.
"Now, he is neither followed nor hated, but laughed at. It's a tragedy since the man is basically intelligent, capable and versatile," said Ketkar.
Dr Kumar Saptarshi, political analyst and founder of Yuvak Kranti Dal (Yukrand) said that Pawar used to taunt us that "you people are theoretical but I am practical." Pawar is now paying the price for being too practical.
"As followers of Jaiprakash Narayan, we participated in the anti-emergency agitation and we believed in pragmatic politics. Pawar, on the other hand, has been practising politics without ideology and this kind of politics leads you to a narrow lane where you knock all doors for an escape," Saptarshi said.
Saptarshi says criticism of ministers like Patil shows the devaluation of a big leader like Pawar. And he has one advice for Pawar: You should either keep mum or take on the likes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah with rational arguments.
But that's one territory Pawar was never familiar with.
Pawar's flip-flops
Statements in a matter of a fortnight after the assembly elections results 2014
We would support BJP from outside
We would support by voting for BJP Government
Don't run the Government relying on our support
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