ON SEPTEMBER 25, after the Enforcement Directorate named Sharad Pawar an accused in the alleged Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam, the Nationalist Congress Party president addressed a huge media gathering. He announced that he would be visiting the agency’s office in south Mumbai on September 27 to help it in its inquiry.
On the same day, nephew Ajit Pawar (also named in the scam) told state assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagade that he wanted to meet on September 27. When Bagade asked whether Ajit was bringing along someone who had resigned from another party to join the NCP, Ajit said he would explain in person.
On September 27, when Pawar was set to visit the ED office, accompanied by almost all senior NCP leaders, Ajit was absent. He had been in Pune and Baramati earlier in the day to coordinate relief work for those affected by flash floods. He said he had left Pune early to reach Mumbai, but had got stuck in traffic as thousands of NCP workers were coming to Mumbai to support Pawar. Eventually, the senior Pawar did not go to the ED office; Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve had urged him not to do so as it could have led to a law and order situation. ED officials also conveyed to Pawar that his presence was not required and they had no intention of questioning him.
In one fell swoop, Pawar had managed to turn the tables on the ED and had created a perception that he was being victimised by the BJP government at the Centre. That too just before the crucial state elections. His statement that “Maharashtra will not bow down before Delhi” energised party workers.
But then, like a bolt from the blue, there was news that Ajit Pawar had tendered his resignation as legislator to Bagade. “We did not know what had happened suddenly,” said an NCP leader close to Ajit. “He had switched off his phone and had instructed close aides to do the same.”
When Pawar himself could not reach Ajit, he spoke to Parth, Ajit’s son. Parth said that his father told him that politics was getting too dirty and it would be better to do farming or business instead. “His son told me that Ajit has been upset that I had to face this trouble (ED inquiry) at this age,” Pawar told journalists in Pune. “I have no idea why Ajit took this sudden decision as he is not someone who will leave a fight.”
Pawar also clarified that there was no rift in the family. “My decision is the last word in family matters,” he said. “I will speak to Ajit and ask him the reason behind his resignation.”
The following day, Ajit met Pawar at the latter’s Silver Oak residence in Mumbai, where he was told to meet the media and clear the air about his resignation. His brother Shrinivas and cousin Supriya Sule, too, were reportedly present at the meeting.
“I resigned because of my conscience,” Ajit told journalists. “Had I told anyone about it, they would have advised against it. For the past few days, I had been thinking about it. I had even asked Haribhau Bagade about his availability in Mumbai.”
He said that the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank, embroiled in the scam, had directors from all political parties and not just the NCP. “I have papers submitted before the state legislature, which say that the minister for cooperation himself has replied that there have been irregularities to the tune of Rs1,088 crore,” he said. “However, the PIL has been filed alleging a scam of Rs25,000 crore. [How can] a bank that had deposits of around Rs12,000 crore have a scam of Rs25,000 crore? All loans have been paid and the bank has even registered a profit of Rs285 crore this year. Had such a scam taken place, would that bank have survived? Where did this Rs25,000 crore figure come from?”
Ajit also said that Pawar had no connection with the bank, neither as a member nor in any other capacity. “Maybe because he is [my] uncle he is being dragged into this,” said an emotional Ajit. “I am responsible for all this trouble he is facing at this age. I became restless and decided to resign without telling anyone, even Pawar saheb.”
This is not a first for Ajit. In September 2012, he had resigned as deputy chief minister when allegations of an irrigation scam had surfaced. What is different this time, though, is the attempt to gain sympathy.
The NCP and the Congress would no doubt make the ED inquiry against Pawar an election issue. “The BJP’s English language dictionary has only five letters, E, D, and C, B, I,” said Congress legislator Anant Gadgil. “They are trying to destroy the opposition by every possible means and using every agency. Deploying the tactics used by Hitler, they are out to silence every opposition leader who is fighting against them.”
The Pawars’ effort to capitalise on the ED investigation is natural, especially at the time of elections. However, the clarification they gave about no “feud in the family” needs scrutiny. The differences of opinion between uncle and nephew have not gone unnoticed.
Sources in the NCP and the Congress felt that Ajit, with his resignation, had squandered the gains Pawar had made with his strong stand in the ED case. This was reportedly the feeling in the NCP camp till Ajit toed his uncle’s line the following day.
This was not the first instance of disharmony between the two. In the 2004 assembly elections, when the NCP had won 71 seats against the Congress’s 69, Ajit had wanted the party to stake claim for the chief minister’s post. Pawar, however, settled for additional key portfolios. After the 2009 state elections, when 58 legislators demanded in a letter that Ajit be made leader of the NCP in the state legislature (and thereby deputy chief minister), Chhagan Bhujbal was brought in as deputy chief minister. “There is a section of senior leaders in the NCP that has worked consistently against Ajit,” Suresh Dhas, a former NCP MLC who had signed the 2009 letter, told a news channel after Ajit’s latest resignation.
More recently, when Ajit pushed for his son Parth to contest the Lok Sabha elections, Pawar decided not to contest from Madha. He was clear that only two members from his family would contest. A few months later, when the Union government abrogated Article 370, Ajit welcomed the move. Pawar, though, opposed it. Recently, during the NCP’s Shiv Swarajya Yatra, when Ajit suggested that saffron flags be hoisted along with the party flag, Pawar shot it down. Ajit kept his distance from the yatra thereon.
Internal differences notwithstanding, if the Pawars want to win the upcoming elections, they will have to put up a united front.