By Don Aguiar
Mumbai, Nov 28, 2019: I want to change my vote after election. Can I? If not, how can leaders change their party after elections?
Well – You can’t, they can. And you shouldn’t complain, because you, probably, voted for the Great Game Changer, in 14 and 19. This disease has existed before the game changer, came about. We will continue to suffer this, and other, such diseases for many more years to come. It’s not a disease. It’s a rot.
The root of right governance is victorious inner-restraint, the root of victorious inner-restraint is humility.
In the early hours of Saturday (November 23), when the people of Maharashtra were fast asleep, the country awoke to strife and unfreedom.
News of the death of democracy – the tearing up of constitutional norms – was broken by the executioner-in-chief through his preferred medium, Twitter.
Curiously, the morning newspapers had all led with the headline that the Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray was going to be the Maharashtra chief Minister.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar had made this big announcement to reporters the previous night after it was clear the Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress had managed to sink their political differences and make common cause against the BJP.
For the prime minister and federal home minister, Pawar’s announcement was a call for them to don protective gear and descend into the political sewers.
The two leaders knew they could not afford to let the Maharashtra government out of their hands and had prepared the ground, from day one, to ensure the BJP returned to power.
They had already played fast and loose with norms and principles; all that was required was a final act of brazenness, which they pulled off without any hesitation or embarrassment.
The prime minister, home minister and all of the BJP knew that the majority of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress is going to be proved, so they, BJP imposed presidential rule very fast in the state, and the president’s rule in the state cannot be withdrawn without the central approval.
If the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combined had proposed withdrawal of the presidential rule from Maharashtra, then the BJP would have rejected the proposal and applied the presidential rule for another six months, in the state.
But Pawar is the father of all time politics. He already knew about this, so he made it happen.
Ended first the president’s rule in the state, by asking Ajit Pawar to support with Fadnavis. Now Fadnavis will have to prove a majority in the assembly within next 5 days and Fadnavis will not be able to/cannot prove it!
At that time, the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress will prove the majority and after 5 days the Shiv Sena will be the chief minister and deputy chief minister to the NCP.
BJP needs to understand never to mess with the principle of the school you went to, Experience makes it all.
Are we seeing the assertion of Marathi pride by all the three parties in the Maha Vikas Aghadi over BJP’s nationalist rhetoric?
We the people are the real betrayers! We who are watching this drama and enjoying it like a soap opera, even calling it, twist from the Game of Thrones! And we citizens as mute spectators looking down the drain.
We, who think that the bestowing of a Chanyaka title on someone is like making a hero out of that person instead of protesting about the treachery and betrayal, are sitting on fingers clenching the sides of our seats wondering what new scene tomorrow will bring while cheering and applauding their sinister chess-like moves!.
The real lesson from Maharashtra is not about any one political party’s victory or defeat, but about the state of politics in the country and what it has done to all of us. Maharashtra exposes the fact as to how the practice of politics has corrupted everything and everyone that it has touched. No one is left with any right to speak. Everyone’s greed and opportunism have helped cancel out everyone else’s greed and opportunism.
All political parties in India have been quite adept at this kind of opportunistic promiscuity; it is only that the BJP has patented a particular formula that is proving to be more consistently effective than others have in the past.
And, aided by a pliant and craven media, it has increasingly shown a willingness to be ever more brazen in its efforts to do what it takes to win. They also have no problems when politicians are widely known to be corrupt magically turn clean when they join the BJP.
We are now a nation run by compromised individuals and no rule of law – President, Prime Minister, Governor, Home Ministry…… None was spared. No institution stood up to be counted and no one is bothered. As the keepers of our constitution, even the SC didn’t take cognizance…
A chameleon committed suicide and left a note behind stating that “I concede defeat. I cannot change my colours as fast as the Indian politicians”
We work hard and pay our taxes honestly…. so that all political parties can keep their MLAs safely in five star hotels….. Or It is necessary for the well-being of farmers…… countering the climate….. the ailing cooperative sector…….. Infrastructure……. Reservation quota…… ideologies……
And this is the price we must pay…. for being thrust upon, with excessive freedom and democracy. Both of which were hard earned but ill deserved.
Time will tell what role the courts, the Election Commission and also NCP president Sharad Pawar will play in the unfolding drama. But one things is clear. Future historians – if they are free to ply their craft – will speak of Narendra Modi and not Indira Gandhi as the prime minister who institutionalised venality and the debasement of institutions in politics.
I dread to think what our children are learning from what is happening today. That being clever and cunning makes you a winner? Oh sure, you may win the battle of immediate success but you will lose the war on character.