Pawar Meets Amit Shah: What's Cooking?
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-03-31 03:27:33
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
Despite denials by the NCP and a cryptic "everything can't be made public" remark from Amit Shah, several reports have confirmed that Sharad Pawar indeed meet the Union home minister at the residence of an industrialist in Ahmedabad recently. The meeting assumes great significance in the light of the Sachin Waze mess and the corruption charges leveled against NCP leader and Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh by Parambir Singh, the ex-CP of Mumbai Police.
Although no details have emerged what was discussed in the meeting, it is obvious that the other constituents of the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Agadhi (MVA) in the state are on tenterhooks. This is mainly because Sharad Pawar is considered to be the shrewdest politicians around and people would pay a fortune to discover what is going on in his mind.
There is no doubt that the Waze incident and the subsequent corruption charges against Deshmukh have created more fissures in the already fragile setup of the MVA. There is also no doubt that it was the machinations of Pawar that brought the three disparate parties together to form the government. If Pawar meets Amit Shah, it is natural for people to think that there might be a realignment of forces.
But with Pawar admitted in hospital for a surgery and Maharashtra in the grip of a severe second wave of Covid-19, anything which disturbs the political stability in the state would be disastrous. One believes that both Shah and Pawar must have realized this and whatever they discussed must have been future strategy, once the situation becomes normal.
There were too many internal contradictions in the MVA to begin with. It has governed the state stumbling from one crisis to another. But the Waze incident is its biggest setback till now. If the NIA finds the involvement of influential people, the government will have to resign. Maybe Shah knows this and will not grant any concessions to Pawar. On the other hand, the urge to teach the Shiv Sena a lesson might be too strong and a change of government, where the NCP offers outside support, cannot be ruled out some months down the line.
