NCP founder Sharad Pawar reaps what he sows

It is written in all religious texts that whatever one does, he has to suffer in the same birth because history repeats itself. Whatever you do to your father, your son will also follow the same behavior with you because he has learned the same from you. On Sunday, this thing appeared to be proved true in the politics of Maharashtra. The desire for power is very merciless. Relationships get dwarfed in this. Who would know about this better than Sharad Pawar, who got embroiled in the fray of politics at the hands of his nephew Ajit Pawar. What happened to Sharad Pawar on Sunday must have reminded him of 1978. Perhaps this is the reason why he said that rebellion is not a new thing for him. He will revive the party. It was his nephew Ajit Pawar who sounded the bugle of rebellion on Sunday, but then Sharad Pawar did a big upset. The entire episode on Sunday reminded one of Sharad Pawar’s rebellion against the Vasant Dada Patil government in Maharashtra in 1978.

Some leaders, including Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, on Sunday joined the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra. This move reminded me of 1978. That too was a big political event just like today. Then Sharad Pawar raised the bugle of rebellion against the then Chief Minister Vasant Dada Patil’s government. Sharad Pawar rebelled against the Congress about 45 years ago and broke away with 40 MLAs. Due to this, the then Patil-led government had fallen.

Pawar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the Progressive Democratic Front on 18 July 1978. Many opposition parties were involved in this. It is said that in 1978 the Legislature session was going on. The then Home Minister Nashik Rao Tirpude warned Chief Minister Patil about the threat to his government from Industries Minister Pawar. Joshi recalled, ‘Vasantdada replied (to Tirpude) that Sharad had just met me. Later the same day, Vasantdada resigned from the post of Chief Minister. Now Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar directly became the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra from the Leader of the Opposition. Not only this, Sharad Pawar’s senior aides Praful Patel and Chhagan Bhujbal are also with him. Ajit Pawar says that all the MLAs of the party are with him. He also made it clear that no new party has been formed, the name-symbol of NCP is his claim on all. He also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On this episode, at first Sharad Pawar kept saying that he did not know why Ajit had called the meeting, but later threatened to take action against the rebels and announced to set up the party again. While pacifying his supporters, he said that this is not a new thing, he has dealt with these challenges earlier also. Sharad Pawar appointed Jitendra Awhad as the Leader of the Opposition. He had made daughter Supriya Sule the working president of the party after falling in love with his daughter, after which Ajit Pawar’s attitude became tough. The thing worth knowing about Sharad Pawar is that his family was in the sugar business from the beginning and even today most of the sugar mills are with his family and the people associated with it. Sharad Pawar broke 40 MLAs and many ministers including Sushil Kumar Shinde left with him. After this Vasantdada Patil’s government came in minority and after his resignation Sharad Pawar became the Chief Minister. He formed a new party named ‘Samajwadi Congress’. Sharad Pawar, who was skilled in manipulation from the beginning, then formed ‘Progressive Democratic Front’ alliance with Janata Party, Left parties and ‘Shetkari Kamgar Paksha’ and became the Chief Minister. However, his government was dismissed after 18 months in office. Today this same Sharad Pawar is advising his nephew to rebel.

Sharad Pawar toppled the government of Vasant Dada Patil which lasted only for 4 months. Sharad Pawar’s father Govind Rao was working in Baramati Kisan Sahakari Bank. His mother was engaged in farming. Sharad Pawar took admission in college in Pune and started his political career as the general secretary of the student union. In 1967, at the age of just 26, he became an MLA from Baramati. When he brought down the government, Vasantdada Patil himself had said that Sharad Pawar had backstabbed him.

During the government of Vasantdada Patil, Shivraj Patil of Indira Gandhi’s Congress was the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. At that time Chandrashekhar used to be a strong leader of Janata Party with whom Sharad Pawar was close and this became the reason for toppling the government. In Sharad Pawar’s government, Pranlal Vora got the post of speaker by replacing Shivraj Patil. Sharad Pawar created a network of his own through cooperative politics and sugar mills, which provided him with human resources as well as finance. You would also know that the Janata Party government formed after defeating Indira Gandhi, who had lost popularity due to emergency, could not survive and Prime Minister Morarji Desai was unable to take everyone together.

(Prince)
, Ashok Bhatia