Shiv Sena – Journey to Self-Destruction ------------------------------------------------------- The 25-year-long relationship between the Shiv Sena and the BJP has been on a downslide ever since the Maharashtra assembly elections were announced, culminating in the BJP snapping ties with them on 25th Sept’14, just 3 weeks before the assembly elections. BJP proved their decision to be correct by winning more seats than what the Sena offered it for being in alliance and growing almost 3 times compared to the 2009 election. Now that BJP needs an alliance for a few seats to run a majority Govt. in the state of Maharashtra, Shiv Sena is using all kinds of pressure tactics with atrocious demands for joining the Govt. While the Sena has been demanding the Deputy Chief Ministers post in Maharashtra along with at least 10 ministries – 4 Cabinet and 6 Ministers of State, the BJP is willing to part with only 8 ministries and is not willing to allot the deputy CMs post. The BJP has also rejected the 2nd Sena formula of 12 ministries in the absence of the deputy CMs post. The Shiv Sena, has also asked for key portfolios like home, revenue, energy, housing, PWD and roads etc. While the BJP seemed agreeable to sharing some key infrastructure and social sector portfolios with the Sena, it has decided to keep the 4 most coveted ministries of Home, Finance, Revenue and Urban Development with itself. This is because the last time the Sena was in power, they were known for rampant corruption, goonda raj and everything else about misgovernance. BJP is also firm that the state cabinet would not be expanded to accommodate the Sena before the trust vote on 12th Nov’14. The latest bone of contention is Shiv Sena’s objection to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s keenness to induct former Union Minister and technocrat Suresh Prabhu into the Union Cabinet and give him a very important cabinet portfolio. Prabhu’s performance in critical ministries in the NDA-I had been praised by all parties but Atal Behari Vajpayee had to drop him from the cabinet by giving in to the demands of Bal Thackeray as inspite of being in key ministries, Prabhu had refused to indulge in corrupt practices to fill the coffers of Shiv Sena. Such behaviour clearly shows that Shiv Sena is a power hungry, corrupt political party and does not think of the greater good of the people of Maharashtra and India. The Sena is increasingly coming across as an irrational and irresponsible party unable to come to terms with the changed reality of shift in power equation between it and its erstwhile junior ally BJP. Any party that can’t see the changing times and can’t adapt to changing political realities, is likely to bite the dust and become a peripheral player if not irrelevant. The Sena has been acting very immaturely and making outlandish statements and expects BJP to comply with its irrational demands. To even think that Uddhav Thackeray can dictate terms to Modi and Amit Shah, the way Bal Thackeray did to Vajpayee and Advani is proof enough that they are living in a make belief world of their own without any contact with reality. The type of governance that Modi and Shah has promised, it can be stated with a fair amount of certainty that they would give such demands a cold shoulder if not total rejection with contempt and rightly so. They are still not able to realize that for Modi - clean, able, honest and efficient persons are more important than petty political considerations. Either Uddhav has got all his calculations wrong or his advisers have seriously misled him. The BJP is also peeved that while discussions of joining the state govt. is on, the Sena would not commit it to being a part of the Central Cabinet expansion plans until the BJP cleared the power-sharing agreement in Maharashtra. It’s about time the Sena drama ends. The BJP should simply stop trying to humour them and let them take whichever call they wish. Shiv Sena has proved to be completely unreliable, thoroughly corrupt and far removed from the ground reality. After this fiasco, Sena can’t even expect sympathies of the average Marathi Manus also. After being humbled at the hustings, Shiv Sena is indulging in bravado and refusing to mature. The BJP should offer it only what it now deserves for being an old ally and keep all options open for continuing the Govt. in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena under Udhav Thackeray seems to be going on the path of committing political suicide. Instead of trying to increase the goodwill of the voters for the party, they are decreasing it by demonstrating that they are only interested in grabbing more ministries to make money rather than serving the people efficiently and honestly and find out the reasons as to why voters did not support them as much as they liked in the recent elections. If the leadership still refuses to learn fast and take lessons from the writings on the wall, it will have its name added to the list of political parties facing extinction. Probably, Shiv Sena is already in its last phase of existence. The elections are over and people have given their verdict. The public is in favour of BJP and Sena forming the next Maharashtra Govt. They want progress, development and growth in a corruption free environment. So, the time has come to serve the people with humility and accountability. Time has changed and Sena needs to upgrade its vision and competency. Narendra Modi seeks performance and accountability. He picks up people on merit and past track records. He balances talent and relationships but first preference is given to talent. Shiv Sena has to discard their age old agenda to run a parallel govt. in Maharashtra as well as in centre once they are given ministerial positions. Can Sena publicly commit itself to honest and corruption-free participation in the Govts.? Can it promise to be true team player in the cabinet for efficient and accountable good governance? Can it promise to show responsible restraint in its words and actions? Right now the impression, people are getting is that it wants to grab ministries mainly for the purpose of accumulating ill-gotten wealth and enjoy irresponsible style of power without being accountable. It seems that Sena dont have good leaders with vision, integrity and administrative abilities. It has been out of power for last 15 years and if it has to remain so for another 5 years, its existence will be at stake. Uddhav knows very well that if Sena doesn’t join the Govt in Maharashtra this time, there will be split in the party and most of its leaders will leave it to join BJP. Regional parties are doing immense damage to our country’s progress and development. Most of them are the most corrupt, criminal and anti-development in nature. They also thrive on dividing the nation on caste and narrow regional line on the pretext of protecting the interest of the people of their region but actually for their own selfish interest to grab power and money by looting the very people they claim to represent. They only end up damaging national integration, reverse development & good governance and survive on weakening & blackmailing the Central Govt. Shiv Sena’s time is up. Hope parties like Shiv Sena disintegrate and goes into oblivion, so that India can ride itself of regionalism and replace it with fully integrated nationalism. . They are obstructionist people only interested in power and money without an iota of interest of the people of the state and the country in their heart. Its appropriate that Modi and BJP are giving two hoots to disruptive forces like Shiv Sena. The Prime Minister of the nation is free to take decisions and appoint able people of his choice, who can deliver without bothering about blackmail in the garb of coalition dharma.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 16:46:14 +0000
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