Is BJP orchestrating political chaos in India?

Do the RSS and the BJP desire political chaos in the country? Recent developments in Maharashtra are clearly indicating it. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has been a strong political force in the state. It has also made its presence felt in other parts of the country. A well RS planned defection has reduced the party to a group of leaders who are fiercely fighting against each other. Had the ruling party been aware of the situation in Manipur, the Modi government would not have wasted its energy on all these petty political manipulations. Its entire focus would have been to extinguish the communal fire in the state. Contrary to this, the ruling party is spending its energy orchestrating the political devastation of the opposition parties. An all-party delegation waited in Delhi for an audience with Prime Minister Modi before his US visit. However, the Prime Minister chose not to oblige them. He has yet to find a word of consolation for the people of Manipur. His silence speaks a lot about the sincerity with which the country is being governed. The latest manoeuvrings in Maharashtra only display the priority of the ruling BJP. More than 30 MLAs deserted octogenarian leader Sharad Pawar and joined the BJP led alliance. The ruling party quickly obliged them by giving nine of these defectors the post of cabinet minister. Ajit Pawar, the leader of the group, became deputy chief minister. A few hours before, he was the leader of the opposition in the assembly.

Desertions have not only left a well-established party devastated but have also initiated a dirty power game in the state. Ajit Pawar has not only to fight his former political colleagues but also his new colleagues from the ruling alliance. Ajit Pawar is the nephew of Sharad Pawar. He has been number two in the party since its inception and has held the post of deputy chief minister whenever the NCP-Congress alliance has been in power. Though he is now alleging that he was being sidelined, the fact is otherwise. He has always been promoted by Senior Pawar as his successor. He even sent his daughter, Supriya Sule, to Delhi as an MP to avoid a power struggle in the state party.

Most party deserters have similar antecedents. They owe their rise in politics to the senior Pawar. It includes Chagan Bhujbal, Prafull Patel, and Dilip Valse-Patil. Whatever they may say, the fact is that they have chosen to desert Pawar because they are unable to survive the onslaught of the Enforcement Directorate and other central agencies. The chronology of events suggests that the coup was planned at the time the Shiv Sena was broken and Eknath Shinde was made chief minister.

In a democracy, defections are not uncommon, and it is good for the health of democracy that people listen to their conscience when they are in a dilemma over issues or ideologies. It is possible that one may differ from the leadership on some vital issues, which prompts them to leave their party and join rival formations in order to pursue their own political agenda. This may even lead him to join a party with a different ideology. However, the emergence of the ED and other agencies as a new force has made politics a murky affair. In the last nine years, this force has played an important role in Indian politics. The ED and other central agencies, including the CBI and Income Tax Department, have become instruments of political coercion. Agencies are invariably targeting opposition leaders and forcing them to bow before the ruling party. The entry of central agencies has changed the very nature of politics.

Though parties in the government have been engineering defections in the past as well, the present case is different in its very content. Humiliated and forced to toe the line of their new masters, the deserters are spitting venom against their former party companions. A new culture of maligning senior leaders and talking only in terms of power has taken over the arena of politics. The claim of Ajit Pawar that he deserves to be the chief minister of the state only displays the changing political scenario in the country.

The media, as usual, is playing to the tune of the ruling party. Its coverage is largely centred on how the defection of MLAs has benefited the ruling BJP. The mainstream media is certainly unable to comprehend the larger issues of democracy. Can a democracy survive without opposition parties? Should the ruling party not defeat its opponents politically and avoid dirty methods to silence them? Does the helplessness of the ruling party to fight an ideological battle not indicate a decline in democracy?

One more issue needs serious consideration. Though the verdict of the Supreme Court on defections from the Shiv Sena only came after a hotly fought legal battle, it seems to have failed in its purpose. It could not even prevent defections in the state. People had expected the judgement would be a deterrent. In fact, Ajit Pawar’s faction is resorting to the same techniques for grabbing the name and symbol of the party with the help of the Election Commission. The judgement seems to have failed to reign in the EC. The verdict could also not make the speaker of the assembly responsible for dealing with defections. The Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly is yet to give a verdict on the issue of the disqualification of Shiv Sena MLAs. The Supreme Court judgement did not provide any clear guidelines to prevent defections or false splits in the party. Will the Supreme Court pronounce a new verdict on the issue?

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)