Born To Survive

THE CORNER THAT Ajit Pawar, leader of the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra, finds himself in shrinks by the day. His allies in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena, see him as a liability after the election results when he couldn’t get his own wife to win and brought just one Lok Sabha seat to the coalition. Eknath Shinde, who broke Shiv Sena as Pawar did NCP, at least delivered enough to justify his presence at the high table. Pawar’s allies might even think that bringing him on board not only didn’t get them additional votes but even led to a decrease because of corruption allegations against him rubbing onto them. A senior leader of his party recently switched sides during a Legislative Council election, another even more senior leader seems to be waiting at the door, and it is quite possi­bly the beginning of an exodus because there is really no ideology that holds NCP together except the spoils of power.

And yet, Pawar’s career will probably be far from over because he carries a surname of the man he betrayed, his uncle Sharad Pawar, himself a proven master of shifting loyalties and alliances and pulling-the-rug-from-under politics. Except that every time the nephew emulates the uncle, it turns out to be the spoof version of the movie. As happened in 2019 when the first time he thought he was taking the party away to form a government and found himself isolated, and swiftly returned to the embrace of the uncle. It was extraordinary that someone as astute as Sharad Pawar would allow himself to be blindsided twice when his nephew split the party again. Many still wonder whether this was the family hedging their bets because allowing him back made little sense.

Sharad Pawar is wont to often say that he does not let politics come in between family relations, but the vice versa is not true. Family relations easily come into his politics. His nephew had been given the chief operating officer position in the party for decades. And then family came in again when his daughter became part of the equation at the top, the main reason for Ajit Pawar’s insecurity and misadventures.

If he was accepted once before then why should it not happen again? For the dynast, family is a primary consideration. It is a little like in olden times with kings and emperors. Their princes would squabble when they came of age and one of them would occasionally mount a rebellion and fail and be then sent into exile and eventu­ally return to favour. Why did the king tolerate it then is why it is tolerated now among politicians with empire—it is what happens with extended families and patriarchs, except that here every­thing is amplified because of the stakes involved. You might be punished for pushing your luck too far, but never completely disowned. It shouldn’t be too surprising to see the two NCPs merging again at some point, maybe with a short term of exile included in it.

Ajit PawarBJPIndian politicsMaharashtraNCP