Congress a bystander as Shiv Sena pushes its Hindutva agenda
Time was when the Shiv Sena showed deference to the Congress led by Sonia Gandhi, desperate as it was to lead a government in Maharashtra to keep the BJP, the single largest party, out of power. It used NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar to open a talks channel with Sonia, whose animosity towards the Sena was mutual.
But as their aim to put down the rampaging BJP took precedence, the three parties formed a power-sharing alliance led by the Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray with the clear understanding of governance based on a common minimum programme (CMP). Weeks later, the Congress began grumbling that it had little say in the government, but it is now clear that the Sena has reduced the Grand Old Party to a doormat.
Its Hindutva agenda is back on the front burner, with the party activating its proposals to rename Muslim dominated districts Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar (after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s son) and Osmanabad as Dharashiv. Despite the Congress screaming that the renaming spree is not part of the CMP, Sharad Pawar appeared to be an embodiment of Gautama Buddha as he pronounced that nomenclatures don’t matter. Clearly Pawar was on the decision loop, so the criticism that the Congress is an insignificant appendage to what is essentially a Sena-NCP government is quite valid.
When Sena megaphone Sanjay Raut criticised Rahul Gandhi and made the case for Sharad Pawar as UPA president, not many sparks flew, indicating the moribund state of the Maharashtra Congress unit. Uddhav justified the renaming of districts, saying the present ones were coined by Mughal tyrant Aurangzeb, who doesn’t fit in with the definition of secularism the CMP is wedded to. Interestingly, there has been little reaction from Left-liberals yet.
The Congress appears to be caught between two stools as any precipitate action would bring the BJP back in the reckoning. The Sena knows it fully well and is trying to squeeze out the BJP, as the latter’s growth came at the expense of the former. It is also inducing defections from all around. As for the astute Pawar, his party shares the Congress’ ideological space, so the latter’s shrinkage ought to work to his advantage. It’s a win-win situation for the Sena-NCP.