A lot has been happening in Maharashtra Politics. For your convenience, I’ll give you an insight, but here’s a disclaimer– My political intelligence is only as much as Mum dumps on me.
So to give you an overview–
In 2019, Devendra Fadanvis (BJP) took an oath as the CM. The government falls within a couple of weeks and Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena, son of Balasaheb Thackerey) becomes the CM.
2022: All of a sudden, many of the Shiv Sena peeps leave the party and Uddhav is not the CM anymore. It’s Eknath Shinde (Shiv Sena- Division B) now.
2023: Ajit Pawar (nephew of the founder of the National Congress Party, Sharad Pawar) is tired of being the Deputy CM all the time. He leaves his home party (NCP) and all the ministers whom BJP might ice up, follow his lead.
That’s all you need to know.
It’s 10 pm. I have just come home. I look at my Instagram and find 2-3 DMs- ‘Do you know what happened?’ ‘Did you watch the news? Ajit Pawar left his home party.’
“Oh”
I think I was supposed to give an Ekta Kapoor kind of ‘WHAT??’ response. But the news didn’t surprise me because:
A: I am not very enlightened on the subject of politics. Also, they have been playing these games since 2019. So it’s hard to keep up with their swaps.
B: Me and my sister had just arrived from a cultural program. It was a Kathak, Bharatnatyam program where they enacted episodes from Mahabharata through classical dance. Since my sister doesn’t know these epics, I was giving her a live running commentary of the events from Mahabharata. Nothing ever is more complicatedly interesting than Mahabharata, not even politics. So please excuse my lame ‘oh.’
I enter the room, mum is sitting in the dark.
Mum: I am never going to vote again.
Me: huh. What happened?
Mum: Ajit Pawar left NCP with 40 others. All of them joined the BJP. Ajit will likely become the CM now.
Me: That game again? If Karan Johar now asks Alia Bhatt who is the CM of Maharashtra and she gives a wrong answer, I don’t think she’d be trolled. I thought the CM changes before his 5-year tenure only if the former dies.
My socks refuse to come out of my feet. Meanwhile, my mum narrated the entire Musical Chair episode right from 2019. For the next few days until today, Mum has resorted to continuously watching the news on a 5 inch display.
Mum:…So if he becomes the CM now, next year we again have elections.
Me: So Ajit did all this just for one year of Chief Minister’s chair?
Mum: Who knows? If his supporters flip again, and he doesn’t have a majority, he’ll probably re-enter NCP. He’ll then plead, ‘Kaka mala vachva‘ (Translation: ‘Uncle please save me’. Backstory: Narayanrao Peshwa said this to his uncle Raghunath Rao when the Maratha forces invaded Shanivarwada to kill him. The phrase is since, very popular and the wada is said to echo his cries even today.)
Mum: The only thing to look forward to is, whether this Kaka (Sharadji) will forgive his Bhaacha (nephew, Ajit)
Mum laughs realizing she’s made a very intelligent comment. Everyone has a humour edge in my family.
She’s watching a video where Ajit Pawar explains his act of betrayal. Aimed at his uncle, Sharad Pawar, he says ‘When you are 83, you should take a backstep and give blessings, not lead.’
Even I am hurt listening to this.
Mum: How dare he? Then why did he let Sharad Pawar take meetings and sabhaas in the rain when his ministers needed public support? Why didn’t he think of his age then?
Supriya Sule ( Sharad Pawar’s daughter. Ajit Pawar is her uncle) in the following video: Girls are better than boys. At least they don’t age-shame the elders. (Supriya works for girl-child welfare. So this statement should be a good enough reason to treat girls better.)
I am confused, about why feminism has suddenly taken a front seat. Mum decides to give me a Supriya history lesson.
Mum: I was in college in 1991. Sharad Pawar distributed sweets all over Maharashtra in celebration of Supriya’s marriage. She then went to live in Singapore. No one ever thought she’d join politics, but she did. So Sharad Pawar has given her a place in central politics. No homecoming for her. The state politics is for Ajit.
Mum: Mahabharat keeps repeating itself even after 5000 years. Blood relatives fight for power. The same happened with the Munde family. Gopinath Munde’s nephew Dhananjay overpowers his daughter, Pankaja, even though she is quite the superior. Balasaheb Thackarey’s nephew Raj is a good one but had to walk out when his son, Uddhav, who had no interest in politics earlier, decided to join. Now both Raj and Uddhav have lost Shiv Sena. It’s like when two monkeys fight over the cheese, the cat gets it all. Here, the BJP gets it all.
A firecracker has burst in my head.
Me: It’s because they never thought their daughters would join politics. If Uddhav was a daughter, Raj would have had his place in Shiv Sena intact.
They think their daughters will get married, have kids and never look back. So instead of giving their chair to somebody outside the family, they decide to mentor their nephews. Until one fine day, they realize the daughters are also better, but by then the nephews have become snakes.
Mum: oh no, there’s nothing about gender here. (I guess Mum thought I was trying to co-relate to our family of 2 daughters and one son.)
Me: You will agree with me after two years, as usual.
Mum: For years and years, all the Pawar brothers and Co. have celebrated Diwali together at the family house. How will they deal with this? (Seriously? worried about eating faraal and bursting firecrackers together, are we?)
Mark Zuckerberg introduces Threads and I spend half the day on it.
Me: Elon Musk bought Twitter some time ago. And he’s started charging everyone to get a blue tick of verification. So Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg launched threads today.
Mum: Sounds like they took inspiration from our CMs and Maharashtra politics.
Me: Right.
Me to Mum: I have finalized a home for myself in Karvenagar.
Dad too has found a new topic to vent his anger. Dad peeps in the room, and with a million creases on his forehead slides in a comment–
Dad: Home-breaker, that Ajit Pawar. Got no respect for elders, this young generation (This arrow’s got to have my name on it but Ajit Pawar is no young generation. He is 5 years older than my father, so I wonder who my dad’s comment is meant for.)
I can’t fathom how my mom and dad can discuss politics early in the morning at 5.30- 6ish. The retirement era of my parents is lit if the CMs keep changing now and then. I am relieved I don’t have to worry anymore.
Mum’s watching Ajit’s video in which he says: “I have become Deputy Minister 5 times. 5 times!! My own son mocks me saying, ‘Deputy again?’ When will I ever become the CM?”
Me who has a very naïve heart, listening to his tone: Doesn’t he know that you have to do a lot of work too, run an entire state as a CM? You can’t just go on building lavish cities everywhere.
Mum: Being deputy for so long has offended him.
Me: Huh. So the elders don’t just get offended if their daughters don’t get married early. There can be other reasons too. Good to know. (My sarcasm makes my heart happy)
Mum ignores, clearly.
Moral of the Story: You can end any topic, literally any topic, onto marriage.
