If a week is a long time in politics, then a decade is truly an eternity. That ancient political truism has been driven home this week yet again as the Nationalist Congress party 'celebrated' its tenth anniversary.
Only days before the 'celebration' one of its senior leaders and party MP, Padamsinh Patil was arrested for murder, a grim reminder of the creeping criminalisation of Maharashtra's political elite. And just a fortnight ago, one of its founders, P A Sangma, had apologized to Sonia Gandhi for raising the foreign origins issue. If ever there was ever a prize for a political somersault then this was a gold medal winning effort.
Ah, Mr Sangma! A decade ago, the ever-smiling former Lok Sabha speaker from Meghalaya had been the driving force behind the anti-Sonia campaign, using every forum to target the Congress chief. Yet, at the ministerial swearing in of the UPA government, the animosities seemed to be a forgotten chapter. As Mrs Gandhi applauded Agatha Sangma being sworn in as the youngest member of the Manmohan Singh government, a beaming father couldn't resist sharing the joyous moment. What price the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty or foreign origins when you have the opportunity to start your own dynasty in the Garo hills?
Which is perhaps a question that could just as easily be posed to Sharad Pawar in the context of Maharashtra. With a talented daughter now firmly ensconced as the MP from the pocket borough of Baramati, with an ambitious nephew who runs his own parallel empire in Pune, Mr Pawar has slowly established his family raj in the state. Now, the NCP claims it wasn't an anti-dynasty party, but only against the idea of a person of 'foreign origins' becoming the prime minister of the country. But the foreign origins issue was settled five years ago when Mrs Gandhi listened to her 'inner voice' and chose not to become the prime minister. Why then should the NCP still exist as a political party?
The question is significant because it is being raised just months ahead of the crucial Maharashtra assembly elections later this year. It has gathered added momentum because a section of the Congress leadership, bolstered by their success in the Lok Sabha elections, is now advocating a 'go it alone' policy in every state. Maharashtra though, is not quite Bihar, or even UP. The RJD and the Samajwadi party were built on a streak of anti-Congressism, so a parting of ways was hardly surprising. The NCP, by contrast, is a party which has emerged from the womb of the Congress. The two parties are competing for an almost identical vote base, which is why an alliance break-up could well result in a vote split and almost certain election defeat.
But for the very reason that the NCP and the Congress cannot sever their alliance, they must consider the proposal for a merger. When asked this question last week, Mr Pawar made it clear that there was no question of disbanding the NCP and that the party's identity was intact. Asked what that identity was, Mr Pawar had replied that the NCP stood for 'democratic decentralisation'. Presumably, if the original battle was against Sonia's foreign origins, the latest war was against the ubiquitous high command culture that still afflicts the Congress.
On the face of it, that is a powerful reason to maintain an independent identity. Why should any self-respecting, powerful regional boss spend days doing the rounds of the Delhi durbar when he can just as easily run his own private fiefdom in his home state? In the prevailing political arrangement, a party with even a handful of MPs can demand, and get, sufficient ministries. With just nine MPs, but three ministers, the NCP has a pretty decent strike rate. As an independent party, it can bargain with the Congress leadership for a greater share in the Maharashtra and central pie. As part of the Congress, it would have to be satisfied with the crumbs that are thrown in its direction.
And yet, a political entity is expected to have a distinctive agenda that goes beyond just power sharing. Unfortunately, the NCP doesn't have any such agenda. The 'nationalism' that was the basis for its creation went out the day Mrs Gandhi made her foreign origins irrelevant to the public discourse. More damagingly, the 'regionalism' which ostensibly was to be the basis for future growth of the NCP has also failed to take off . The DMK, despite the scandalous manner in which Karunanidhi has attempted to reduce it to a family firm, remains a party whose cadres believe it stands for Tamil interests. The Trinamool's recent success has been in identifying itself with a Bengali sub-nationalism, much as Naveen Patnaik has succeeded in creating a sense of Oriya pride through the Biju Janata Dal.
By contrast, the NCP's great failure has been its inability to be seen as a pan-Maharashtra party. Instead, its been reduced to a sub-regional party, with limited appeal outside its original sugar co-operative heartland of western Maharashtra. And even here, its slowly been typecast as a Maratha-dominated party which represents the interests of the agrarian bourgeoise with strong links to the new business and real estate barons of urban Maharashtra. To be branded as a party of crorepatis is hardly the basis for building a mass organization.
Moreover, a powerful section of its local leadership has now openly advocated for reservations for Marathas, scarcely the recipe for creating a progressive, inclusive society. The few non-Maratha leaders within the party hierarchy have either been marginalized or are increasingly restive at being excluded from the decision-making apparatus.
Caught in the midst of this inner-party turmoil is a leader who for three decades now has been the eternal prime minister in waiting. It is almost certain now that Sharad Pawar will not fulfill JRD Tata's alleged prophecy that he would become the prime minister of India one day. A pragmatic politician, Pawar perhaps is aware of his own limitations, and realizes that at the age of 69, his moment may have gone. Which is why he has one eye on his ICC presidentship, the World Cup of 2011, and a possible retirement to his farm. In a sense, it is only appropriate that the NCP's symbol is a clock. It's a daily reminder to its party leadership of the need to turn the clock back and return to the party of their origin.
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Well observed Mr. Rajdeep.
Firstly, the NCP is in crisis because of two of their top-most leaders : Mr. Pawar and Mr. Patil.
The on going season of recession that now has gone up to affect the monsoon and the very fact that Mr. Pawar is more worried about the ICC post than his own oath towards "public" service as the Min. of Agriculture. Draught looms large on us and Mr. Pawar chooses to practically "run away" from his duty. The very farmers that put him in the Parliament are being deserted!! What happened to the "farmers suicide" issue??!!
As for Mr. Patil, he is yet to be proven "guilty". But which MP spends his term in the prison. (Generally they spend it in the comfort of their air-conditioned cabins in the hospitals).
NCP has lost its reason to exist. The Maratha factor is still with them and its only a matter of time (as shown by their symbol) that it shrivels and merges back with the mothership party. They will have to pay for their inaction - as you said surviving on "crumbs" that come their way. But that is a pill that the NCP will have to swallow.
I believe that Congress should go in alone in Maharashtra. The BJP is at an all time low. Shiv Sena is practically undone. So, it is the right time for the "panja" to dismantle the clock and regain its stature in Maharashtra. ...Reply
the issue of foreign nationality of sonia gandhi was blatant oppertunism. ncp has no right to exist as a seperate political party and should be taught a lesson by the people by making it irrelevant.
they have been rewarded for their disgusting oppertunism and lack of vision by making their offsprings ministers. ...Reply
Merging of NCP and INC may lead to confuse people, who in recent elections have voted for single large party. The general mass is beginning to realize the adverse effects of multi party systems in Indian democracy. We all must agree on fact that half of our resources in terms of constitutional intelligence is wasted in managing and coordinating these regional parties. However people in states like Orissa voted for BJD as single major party who can represent Oriya and Naveen through his works has won hearts of Oriya people. Through various incidents BJD realized bonds with BJP need to sliced. It was November 2008, I was returning from Bhubaneswar to Rourkela after appearing CAT 2008, it was then I realized how paralyzed the government is due to BJP. There was certain rally organized by Saffron party and their workers boarded the train without tickets and the whole train was a mess. The railway officials tried a lot, but again after delaying the train by 7 hrs the officials had to compromise as the workers belonged to ruling party. I personally believed if Naveen Patnaik would have been single person ruling then the situation could have been different. So through various such incidents the amm admi is beginning that they should go for a single large party. If NCP and INC tie up this may add to confusion of public, who is already so confused and trying to sort out the situation with mandate. ...Reply
SINGH ISN'T KING...!!!
It is an undeclared edict of Statecraft that a bureaucrat can never ever become a Head of State .At best he can dream of only exercising the power of the Head of State by sitting tight on a file or extrapolating the hair-splitting rule of a certain note-file and feel as a Sovereign [he basks in the glorified position of legally being an extension of the Government itself]â¦and he exults in wielding the pen-pushing powers so much like a conductor of a Music-orchestra.
It is however not improbable for one who has if at all only stepped out to the nearest polling-booth to cast his vote alongwith fellow government-servants to ever imagine that he would short-circuit the very Constitutional ways and means of contesting a mass-hysterical general election ,toil hard day and night and win a seat into the Parliament .
It is equally unheard of for an alien to overtake Planet Earth and rule it sitting cozy on ground-level breathing the purest of oxygen and drinking from the purest of mineral waters and desiccating upon the choicest of fruits and vinegar supplied by the best of brand names, world-wide.
But Sardar Manmohan Singh made it â" lock,stock and barrel to the good books of then Head of State as well as to the inner corridors of Power ,continuously for the last two decades .And ,he has legitimized his constitutional status by being elected to the Rajya Sabha frog-leaping over grass-root workers and those whose families had either dedicated their wealth and happiness to the cause of politics or those who had been out on the streets shouting slogans or demonstrating for one good issue or the other plaguing the nation since decadesâ¦Not just that,he has been a master tactician in that on the eve of the last elections, his party announced his candidature for the Prime ministerâs post and after the largely expected sweep of his partyâs alliance at the general polls, he continued in officeâ¦!
So far so goodâ¦But here comes the time when Narcissist tendencies seem to overpower the saner ,calmer senses of such an experienced bureaucrat and faithful government servant : he seems to be trying to shed his image of a âyes manâ or a âclean personâ and seems to be openly attempting to shed the shell of a tortoise and reveal a giant form of a dinosaur or an Apollo â¦He is giving off the cuff statements [who has forgotten that he was in Washington D.C. of all places in September,2008 to attest the US Nuclear-deal and it was the ominous date of fall of the American giant Lehman Brothers and when they were all shaken up at the looming large of a miserable Recession ,the Sardar beamed wide and said that India is not deterred nor bothered about it as his planning is perfect and the economy was in good shapeâ¦AND in space of a month, the dastardly attack on Mumbai targeting foreigners took place!] â" be it about local state of affairs or to wily Zardari or to the rest of envoys across the world â¦He has been jumping from one âoff-the-cuffâ remark and unrelated incident to unrelated incident with an occasional pivotal line of dialogue thrown in .
It just seems that he should be talking about something more relevant â¦or maybe just exhibit that famous sheepish and genuinely affable-looking smile of the last few decades in public glareâ¦If he continues to dabble in the showmanship of a âstatesmanâ or a âNobel Prize Aspirant â,that would become a surplus aside without an ounce of Chemistry or authenticity. As the face of the Head of our Government [and though Mr.Advaniâs open remarks on him might have been a spot-on political farce],Sardar Manmohan Singh should know better instead of turning out to be an unsophisticated lampoon with an unconvincing heart-felt speech finale.Funny is funny but this script-writerâs delightful personality falls short of his potential.Silence is the better part of valor for him.He is not cut out for making extempore speeches of the ilk of Jawaharlal Nehru , Mahatma Gandhi or Indira Gandhi .
Would somebody narrate the tale of âThe Emperorâs New Clothesâ to him, please?
...Reply
It was congress who expelled Mr. Pawar. In fact Mr. Pawar asked Sonia to listen her 'inner voice' way back in 1999.
You are conveniently ignoring the fact Mr. Rajdeep.
There is no dilemma with NCP. Why should they go back? They have a better party structure than congress. Idealogically NCP is more inclined towards right than Congress.
Neither is Pawar projecting his relatives as his successors nor he is a regional leader of western MH. In fact his party got the status of National Party in its first election. ...Reply
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