EDifying or UnEDifying? That is for you to decide. But the fact remains that the Chanakya of realpolitik, Sharad Pawar, was on Sunday categorical in stating the headline-grabbing rebellion in his Nationalist Congress Party, which he termed a robbery, was prompted by fears of Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids and arrests.
"I want to give the credit for this to PM Modi. Two days ago, he had made statements and after that statement, some people started feeling uneasy, some of them were also facing ED actions," the 83-year-old veteran was quoted as saying.
Sharad Pawar being Sharad Pawar did not let it stay at that. He said that the decision to make his nephew Ajit Pawar the deputy CM and many others ministers has made it "clear that all the charges have been cleared". "I am thankful to him (PM Modi)," he added, tongue-firmly-in-cheek.
The senior Pawar specifically named Ajit Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse-Patil and Hasan Mushrif as being among the leaders cowed down by the fear of looming arrests. Notably, Ajit Pawar, Bhujbal and Praful Patel, another prominent leader who has shifted allegiance, already have pending ED cases against them.
Sharad Pawar's statements come a little less than a month after Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin accused Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths of harassing Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji relentlessly before the latter's arrest -- harassment that Stalin charged sent Balaji to the ICU.
Governor RN Ravi had recently ordered the dismissal of Balaji before retracting it reportedly after Union home minister Amit Shah advised him to do so. Unlike Balaji who possibly faces a long fight to clear his name, Ajit Pawar by deserting the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and joining the Eknath Shinde-led BJP government, has now earned himself the right to be the third engine in what CM Eknath Shinde has termed his all-new "triple-engine" sarkar.
The ED had earlier submitted a chargesheet in the Maharashtra State Cooperative (MSC) Bank scam in which it had attached the properties of a sugar mill linked to Ajit Pawar and his wife Sunetra. However, according to reports even before Sunday's surprising and fast-paced developments, Ajit and his wife's names were later dropped from the ED chargesheet.
Maha dramas of this nature are presently the new reality.
The way Eknath Shinde and his faction toppled the Uddhav Thackeray-led government involved resort politics and allegations of horsetrading and pressure from Central agencies. Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot had put a figure to the sums exchanged in such horsetrading sessions -- Rs 35 crore in 2022, the year Shinde became CM.
"The BJP's acts are weakening democracy. They topple state governments and form their own government after buying MLAs. Using the money received through electoral bonds, they buy MLAs just like people buy goats from bakra mandis during Eid," Gehlot had said then.
Ajit Pawar's 'rebellion' is a follow-up act in that script, which had seen Shinde's crowning on July 3, 2022, in Maharashtra. The new deputy CM has assumed office on another July day -- July 2, 2023. Beware the start of July may be the cry going around in opposition circles now.