Democracy Wins? the Losers Take It All
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Word SPY SUPERAGER VIEWSER PAGE A person over 80 years old who A person who watches video content online, or who Oped 9 exhibits little cognitive decline combines regular TV watching with related digital content DECCAN CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY | 27 NOVEMBER 2019 | HYDERABAD Democracy wins? The losers take it all Uddhav Thackeray on the fam- an RSS apparatchik and come together on the basis of a racies. The US saw power pass- ily party, the NCP. It had noth- MAHARASHTRA allowed that to overpower his shared region, religion or ing from a self-nominating con- ing to do with policy or politi- sense of morality. Clearly, he caste, with any one of these ventional process to a primary Mohan Guruswamy cal morality. It was a question What we have wit- has shown himself as not fit to impulses being the dominating based system that binds the of his place in the family peck- nessed in these past hold that position. The Prime motive for coming together. convention to the choice of ing order. Like Sonny weeks in Maharashtra Minister used a rarely-used Take each of our many parties. individual party members. Corleone, Ajit Pawar too had a is a complete collapse provision to be used during a The only party that claims a This kind of a transition did tendency towards the rash and war or financial emergency to pan-Indian appeal has long not happen in India. On the went alone to meet his fate. of the notion of politics facilitate the daybreak coup ceased to be anything but an other hand, we migrated from Now we have the likelihood being about a vision for leading to Fadnavis being old feudal order presided over a system where parties consist- e saw an longer be sure of its place in of a Shiv Sena-led government a better future and sworn in as chief minister. by an aristocracy. None of ed of equals sharing a common interest- Maharashtra politics the next with the two Congresses sup- what is best for the What we have witnessed in these parties has a formal purpose and, sometimes, goals ingtime. So it baled out of the porting it from within. The these past weeks in membership, a formal to one where power passed into twist to alliance. BJP may very well say it is people. Instead, we Maharashtra is a complete col- requirement for membership, the hands of a self-perpetuat- anThe pre-election alliance of glad to have the Shiv Sena saw a sordid drama lapse of the notion of politics forums for participation ing political aristocracy. Like unam- the BJP and Shiv Sena won monkey off its back. Narendra played out in five-star being about a vision for a bet- and articulating aspirations the Gandhis, Pawars and biguous over 42 per cent of the popular Modi once described the Shiv hotels in Bombay, with ter future and what is best for of their communities, Thackerays. people’s vote, while the two Congresses Sena as a hafta collection money replacing vision the people. Instead, we saw a or facilities to choose leaders verdict in Maharashtra. The together won only 32.6 per cent party. Now the BJP can hope to sordid drama played out in by any formal process other The writer, a policy analyst WBJP-Shiv Sena alliance cam- of the popular vote. If there muscle into the Shiv Sena base and ideas. five-star hotels in Bombay, than general and often-simu- studying economic and security paigning on an unabashed was any morality and decency and become the biggest hafta with money replacing vision lated acclaim. issues, held senior positions in Hindutva platform won a clear left in our politics, the rightful collecting party in India’s rich- When the team led by B.R. and ideas. We have seen the transition government and industry. He mandate winning 160 of the 288 government in Maharashtra est state. Ambedkar wrote the The Pawar family schism of democratic styles in many of also specialises in the Chinese seats. The BJP that won 105 should have been of the two But this is not a simple “art of Constitution, it obviously did that so impacted Maharashtra the world’s established democ- economy. seats had a strike rate of over undesirables. But that was not the possible” power play. This not contemplate the capricious politics is yet another 70 per cent (105 out of 152), to be. Uddhav Thackeray did newly-scrambled alliance of a disregard for norms and disre- metaphor for the collapse of while the Shiv Sena had a an Ajit Pawar on the BJP by renegade Hindutva group with gard for decency and consis- the party system in the coun- strike rate of about 40 per cent pulling out of the right-wing two clan-led Congresses has tency inherent in our leaders. try. From Punjab to Tamil (56 out of 124). Clearly, it was a formation. major implications for Indian How “we” look is a no longer a Nadu, we now have a party win for the worst Hindu revan- Sharad Pawar has never politics. Soon after the concern. In the Maharashtra system that is neither constitu- chism, for the Shiv Sena stands made any bones that he Supreme Court’s somewhat drama, we saw all provisions tional nor legal. Though the or, is it now stood, for every- believed in to old adage that judicially dubious verdict on and expectations of the founders of this Republic never thing right of the RSS. In fact, “politics is the art of the possi- the King Rama birthplace in Constitution flouted and tram- used the term “political party” the Shiv Sena even makes or ble”. What Otto von Bismarck Ayodhya, many in the pled on by all the constitution- even once in the Constitution, made the Bajrang Dal and VHP said was a little more. He actu- Congress welcomed the judg- al authorities. The from day one we were intended looks tame. Be that as may be, ally said: “Politics is the art of ment, just as many of its lead- Maharashtra governor, Bhagat to be and are a party based it was an unambiguous victory the possible, the attainable — ers welcomed the scrubbing of Singh Koshiyari, an RSS appa- democracy. When people elect for the combined retrograde the art of the next best.” In Article 370. By deciding to ratchik, willingly allowed him- representatives they are in fact ideologies of the RSS and SS. Maharashtra’s case, it clearly remain quiet on it, the so- self to be lied to and apparently choosing parties. The people of Maharashtra was the less worst. called liberal or centrist par- accepted signatures by all the How parties function then had spoken and under normal What was possible in ties in our political firmament newly elected NCP MLAs on becomes critical to our democ- circumstances their wishes Maharashtra went way beyond made their ideological choice. sheets of paper attached to Ajit racy. If parties did not func- should have been respected. what was thinkable. The sec- They all moved rightwards. Pawar’s “letter of support” to tion or are not required to But the election results and ondary theme of the BJP-led Now they are allied with the the BJPs chosen legislative function in a prescribed con- their performance clearly told alliance was to arrest the ugly face of that reality. Allied party leader, Devendra stitutional and democratic the Shiv Sena that their time growth of corruption in the with a party that viscerally Fadnavis. Common sense manner, the leadership was running out. The once state by promising to arrest hates religious, ethnic and would have told Mr Koshiyari inevitably migrates into the junior partner of the alliance Ajit Pawar and change his way regional minorities. So where that while some support for hands of an elite, as we have — the BJP was now the engine of life in jail. The suddenly does this leave Indian politics? Ajit Pawar was possible, all seen in almost all our political of the right wing in marooned BJP found a life- Do we now have two right wing was impossible. Clearly, the parties now. These political Maharashtra. It could no saver when Ajit Pawar did an formations? governor never stopped being parties have now factions that PMO ordered illegal electoral bond Careful what sale before vital Assembly elections you wish for Central government in the year email are on the policy deci- ELECTORAL BONDS-3 of the general elections to the sions taken by the then respec- Sadguru Rameshji Prime Minister House of People. At this stage, tive competent authorities. In Narendra Modi’s office such a special window with this context, it may be men- Nitin Sethi directed the finance general elections to Lok Sabha tioned that in the Government far away, may not be in conso- organisations all the decisions ministry to break its nance with the wordings of the are taken in good faith and in own rules to approve notification.” the larger public interest. any people have experienced in their lives the special and illegal This was the first time offi- Interpretation of decisions that whatever they were worried about sale of electoral cials put down in writing that taken may have different per- came true. Whatever they did not want to bonds just before the instructions had come from spectives, hence an appropri- Mhappen, happened. Most of these unfavor- This is Part 3 of the 6-part illegal sale of electoral bonds none less than Prime Minister ate explanation may only be able and unpleasant situations are created by us, though #PaisaPolitics investigative for state assembly elections on critical state Assembly Modi’s office.