Political storm over Maharashtra

When thieves fall apart, investigative journalism begins - An old journalistic adage

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By Prabhat Sharan

The Verdict Weekly

The Congress High Command soothed the ruffled and frayed tempers of Vilasrao Deshmukh and Narayan Rane intra-party supporters. “Give him one year… if he does not improve then we will see.” The Congress High Command said. The man in the eye of the storm was Ashok Chavan. (New Delhi, November 7, 2009)

They waited for one year. Timing was important. Days before the completion of one year, detractors of Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan moved for the kill and Maharashtra witnessed a political turbulence rarely seen in recent times.

Ashok Chavan, son of late Shankarrao Chavan, a fierce loyalist and trouble-shooter of Indira Gandhi, resignation, was accepted and he joined the ever-growing legion of politicians ousted from public representative chair on grounds of misuse of power and corruption. (New Delhi 9, 2010)

The rolling anger and bitterness in the Ashok Chavan led government pulsating behind the plastic smiles for the public cameras, erupted in the Cabinet meeting, in August this year. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ally of Congress - led by Chhagan Bhujbal, R R Patil and Ajit Pawar attacked Chavan. Strangely, there was a tacit support from Congress men also. The Cabinet meeting became a verbal mud-slinging ground. Chavan refused to see the graffiti of his doom etched on the mud wall.

Of course to reduce any natural, social, economic or political phenomenon to one single causative factor is erroneous; but it is also true that even as several factors converge to produce a phenomenon, some of them act as a pivotal force leveraging the effect to a desired end.

One such primary causative factor was ironically Ashok Chavan’s father Shankarrao Chavan’s protégé Vilasrao Deshmukh. For the past two years, one important sector of political battlefield was witnessing the duel between the lineage and protégé. Ashok Chavan had the lineage and the protégé - Vilasrao Deshmukh, the experience of being battle-scarred.

The fight which hitherto had been in the shadows of political curtains was gradually revealing its face to the public. The other players on the stage were also throwing their gauntlets. But Ashok Chavan, handpicked by another Congress lineage degree holder, Rahul Gandhi, was unperturbed; reposing full faith in the Nehru-Gandhi’s heir fire-fighting ability; to scoop him out of the cauldron simmering and bubbling with the spit-fire of all his opponents.

The timing had to be right and a scandal common in Mumbai as a wart on one’s nose was flashed. This was Adarsh Housing Society scandal. Mumbai populace was neither shocked nor stunned by the revelations that politicians and men in power under the façade of allegedly providing housing to either relatives of Kargil war casualties or for poor had usurped a plot of land.

It is an everyday scandal. And somewhere deep in the recesses of the mind the populace knows, even though not clearly, the so-called corruption is nothing but an extension and a symptom of the economic policies being imposed on the country. This has been going since the enacting of Urban Land Ceiling Act 1976 and thereafter the amendment of Development Control Rules in 1993. The builders lobby never had it so good.

The Adarsh Housing Society scandal was just one of such scandals. It had just one minor role to play; to ignite the already pulsating explosive powder packed at strategic points by Ashok Chavan’s opponents as well as CM aspirants. Projecting Adarsh Housing scandal as playing the key role in bringing about a change in the guard and leadership in Maharashtra is just plain befuddling the public. The battle land- mines were laid soon after Ashok Chavan took over the reins of the state from Vilasrao Deshmukh, on December 8, 2008, following November 26 killings in Mumbai.

Ashok Chavan who never craved for carving out a holier-than-thou image, during his tenure as industries minister had already created an animosity with foreign industrialists and investors. Allegations of various kinds surfaced, and Deshmukh was forced to admit even though tacitly that the so-called Rs 70,000 crore MoU deals signed with various foreign companies never fructified because of ‘particular not-so-holy stance taken by his minister.’

However, despite criticism about harbouring indifferent and ‘not-so-holy,’ attitude, Ashok Chavan refused to budge from his nonchalant behavior and continued trampling over the toes in a world where everyone and everybody has a stake in a pie.

Corporations brimming with money were being kept headless. Five cabinet level portfolios, even at the time of ouster were not filled, despite requests and instructions from the Congress High Command itself. After the take-over, Ashok Chavan knew that not only was his fuming predecessor Deshmukh but even Narayan Rane who had always been in running for the CM’s post was also cleaning the gun barrels to fire at an appropriate time.

He also knew that the NCP leaders, especially, deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal was also fidgeting and fuming over his indifference towards their interests. Bhujbal just before October 2009 elections had put up a Rs 6000 crore, Mantralaya renovation proposal. Ashok Chavan, like he did for every proposal, sat on it and refused to take any cognizance or action. The elections came and he was re-elected for the second tenure. The behavior continued. Files pending decision- be it from revenue ministry or be it from industries department or from any other department- kept on piling up.

When Tatas wanted to shift out Nano project from West Bengal, Ashok Chavan for “some strange reasons,” reacted in a belated manner. And Nano project was just one of the small flecks of the industrial diaspora that had started in the state. The state which was known in the country for being a highly-industrialised region began witnessing a migration of industries from Maharashtra to other states.

Monies and funds were flowing only to Nanded, Ashok Chavan’s hometown while other towns were left parched. In fact, during the celebrations of 125 years of Congress, at Wardha, the conversation between two Congress leaders Manikrao Thakre and Satish Chaturvedi, recorded inadvertently by a cameraman during a tea-break at a press meet revealed the image of CM in the eyes of Congressmen.

Even though it raked up a furore in political circles, the point everybody missed was Satish Chaturvedi’s statement: Ab aaya CM line pe and Manikrao Thakre’s reply: Niyat nahi uski paise dene ki. The two were discussing the funding for Congress celebrations. While most of the political parties were raking up the issue of funding political party celebrations, the paid news scandal also broke out.

Of course, all political parties shied away from this scandal as everybody had dipped their hands in this tub, including the media which had constructed the tub in the first place. But Ashok Chavan again fell into the vortex of the storm. He had funded a special supplement “Ashok Parv,” in all the newspapers and was unable to justify the expenses in the election accounts.

Amidst this intra-party squabbling juxtaposed with NCP who was facing the wrath for Lavasa scam, the bells had started knelling his ouster. Adarsh Housing Society scandal which Deshmukh was well aware of as he had held the urban portfolio during his tenure as chief minister, knew the emotive power that the scam straw wielded in the bitter winds which were blowing.

Thus the expose of Adarsh Housing scandal! And later to put a nail into the coffin of Narayan Rane’s aspirations for the coveted chair, another scam involving a land grab in Mahabaleshwar hills also came to fore. NCP got what it wanted. The burial of adivasi land Lavasa land grabbing scam and propping up Sharad Pawar’s nephew - Ajit Pawar as deputy chief minister. For Vilasrao Deshmukh, the ouster means he can still stage a come-back at some point of time. The same goes for Narayan Rane’s aspirations.

And for foreign builder lobby- the new chief minister designate Prithviraj Chavan- means an entry into the highly-entrenched fortress of Mumbai builders.

Prabhat Sharan, is a Senior Journalist with interest in social, human interest, working class, wild-life conservation, media, philosophical and literary studies. He can be contacted at sharanprabhat@gmail.com