The events before the swearing in of Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister, and of his two deputies Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde, were akin to the drama that is witnessed in a typical marriage in Maharashtra and in many other states, where the bridegroom refuses to reach the venue unless his demands are met.
In such situations senior members of the bride’s family are sent to pacify the groom. In this case, Shinde was like the sulking bridegroom and Fadnavis the bride in waiting. In a marriage, the demands are generally to do with dowry demands, which in turn means material things. Though Shinde’s demands are not officially known, according to the grapevine Shinde’s first choice was to be the Chief Minister, though his party has won less than half the seats won by Bharatiya Janata Party, which had decided to make Fadnavis the CM.
Sulking grooms are known to downgrade their demands, when they see that their demands are not being met. Same has been the case of Shinde; if not the Chief Minister’s post, he had apparently demanded the Home and Urban Development Ministries. This demand is akin to the demand for material things by the groom, since political leaders and media persons call these ministries lucrative — the meaning being clear to the public at large.
Now that Shinde has been sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister, the chair he would be occupying should not be like the horse, which was brought to meet the demand of a groom in the writing of renowned humorist of Maharashtra the late P L Deshpande, known to his readers as Pu La. The groom, as described by Pu La had demanded a horse to ride to the venue. There was no horse in the village and finally a horse from a circus in a nearby town was borrowed. The delighted groom sat on the horse, but was shocked to see that after every few steps, the horse went around in circles, being trained only to do that.
While Shinde was sulking, the BJP leadership stood its ground and made Shinde go to Delhi to meet Amit Shah. What transpired there is anybody’s guess, as Shah and his boss Narendra Modi have brought many a leaders to their knees and Shinde is no exception. On his return from Delhi Shinde announced that he will go by the decision of Modi and Shah. One should not be surprised if, in the coming days, Shinde finds himself in the position of the groom on the horse, where one set of reins will be in the hands of Modi, Shah and Fadnavis.
Shinde’s capitulation notwithstanding, he did try to seek his pound of flesh but going by the information as of now, he has been given just bones and crumbs.
It is almost certain at the time of writing his piece, that he will get neither the Home nor the Urban Development ministries.
When Shinde split the Shiv Sena and walked out of the party and Maha Vikas Aghadi government, he had declared that his decision was to stand up for Hindutva and to work for the betterment of the people of the state. He is not the only leader to state the welfare of the people being the priority. Yet, that is not seen when the same leaders joust for a Cabinet berth.
One has not seen any leader insisting that s/he be given portfolios like Rural Development, Women and Child Welfare, Education, Agriculture, Dairy Development, Social Welfare and the like, where they get the opportunity to make good their claims and work directly for the welfare of the people at large, especially the underprivileged. These ministries are not considered lucrative, hence the demand for Home, Urban Development, Industries and Power, to name a few.
Fadnavis, Pawar and Shinde, especially Shinde, have been tomtomming the Ladki Bahin Scheme, but with the elections over, they seem to have forgotten favourite sisters or women colleagues in the party. With his claimed dedication to the empowerment of women, Shinde, who was reluctant to be the Deputy Chief Minister, could have announced that a woman leader of his Shiv Sena would be the Deputy Chief Minister, instead of him. That would have saved him the mental trauma of demotion, within minutes of ceasing to be the Chief Minister, and would also have silenced his party’s legislators, who were keen that Shinde should become the Deputy Chief Minister, for it would have been politically incorrect to oppose the nomination of a woman from the party for the coveted post.
Given such a strong legislator strength with the Mahayuti comprising BJP, Shiv Sena (Shinde) and Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar), it was expected that the formation of the government would be smooth sailing. But the legislator strength of Shiv Sena proved to be its bane, with Shinde trying to indulge in arm-twisting, only to realise that he is small fry in the presence of Modi and Shah, who can twist an arm till it dislocates.
There are likely to be skeletons in Shinde’s closets and it may have so happened that Shah used his brahmastra of CBI and ED, that resulted in Shinde mellowing. Given the history of the BJP, Shinde should be ready to receive more diktats from the BJP.
An average Maharashtrian takes pride in stating, “Moden, pan vaknaar nahi” (shall break, but shall not bend). For Shinde that is only on paper. He has already bent in front of Shah and Modi; it has to be seen if he will crawl in the coming days or if he will walk out.
The author is a senior journalist and media trainer. He tweets at @a_mokashi
