top of page

By:

Correspondent

21 August 2024 at 10:20:16 am

Saintly Mask

Maharashtra’s politics has long excelled at the peculiar art of disguising power politics as moral philosophy. No leader mastered that craft more deftly than NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar. Beneath this carefully lacquered image has lain an older and cruder reality of caste consolidation masquerading as reformism. The latest controversy involving NCP (SP) spokesperson Vikas Lawande and sections of the Warkari community reveals the contradiction with unusual clarity. Lawande had launched a...

Saintly Mask

Maharashtra’s politics has long excelled at the peculiar art of disguising power politics as moral philosophy. No leader mastered that craft more deftly than NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar. Beneath this carefully lacquered image has lain an older and cruder reality of caste consolidation masquerading as reformism. The latest controversy involving NCP (SP) spokesperson Vikas Lawande and sections of the Warkari community reveals the contradiction with unusual clarity. Lawande had launched a scathing attack, condemning allegedly ‘regressive’ practices among the Warkari. In retaliation, members of the community threw ink on Lawande. Throwing ink, issuing threats and allegedly brandishing weapons are acts of thuggery, not devotion. Those responsible deserve prosecution. But the outrage of the Pawar camp also rings hollow. For years, Maharashtra’s self-proclaimed ‘progressive’ establishment treated the Warkari movement with a curious mixture of condescension and political utility. The movement was celebrated when it fitted neatly into the secular-Maratha consensus of the state. But as many Warkaris increasingly gravitated towards the BJP and the broader Hindu political space, the tone changed. Suddenly, there were concerns from Pawar about “regressive elements,” “religious fanaticism” and “outside infiltration” in the Warkari community. Lawande’s remarks against the Warkaris followed his boss, Sharad Pawar’s recent criticism about “regressive” tendencies entering the Warkari tradition. For decades, the Maratha strongman cultivated the image of a worldly progressive who was secular, rational, anti-communal and supposedly above the vulgarities of identity politics. His speeches have invoked the holy trinity of ‘Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar’ with almost liturgical regularity. His followers spoke the language of social justice while his ecosystem claimed moral superiority over the Hindutva right. But now, Pawar and his acolytes are anxious that a devotional movement once assumed to be culturally pliable is slipping beyond its influence. The irony is rich. The very people who denounce ‘Manuwad’ have often presided over some of India’s most ossified cooperative and educational patronage networks wherein dynastic politics flourished and rural satraps thrived. Sugar barons became social reformers by day and caste chieftains by night. But the ground has shifting since the BJP’s rise in Maharashtra in 2014. The party has steadily entered spaces once monopolised by the old Congress-NCP order: OBC networks, sections of Dalits, urban aspirational classes and increasingly the Warkari ecosystem. That explains the particular bitterness directed at figures like Dhirendra Krishna Shastri and other northern Hindu preachers. Politically, the anxiety is of new Hindu religious figures weakening the monopoly once enjoyed by the state’s entrenched ideological class. None of this excuses rabble-rousing by self-appointed guardians of faith. The Warkari tradition’s strength has historically lain in humility, not vigilantism. Those invoking Tukaram while throwing ink on opponents betray the very ethos they claim to defend. Still, Maharashtra should stop pretending that its politics was ever uniquely ‘progressive.’ Much of it was merely caste arithmetic spoken in polished prose. The old establishment wrapped itself in the language of reform while practising patronage, identity and inherited power.

Green Rage in Sacred City

The proposed felling of trees in Nashik’s Tapovan has turned into a major political liability for the BJP ahead of the civic polls.

The religious city of Nashik, preparing to host the massive Simhastha Kumbh Mela, has instead found itself at the heart of a bitter political and environmental storm. The flashpoint is the proposed cutting of nearly 1,825 trees in the sacred Tapovan area to make space for the ‘Sadhugram’ - the temporary settlement for holy men. This seemingly local decision by the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has rapidly ballooned into a political crisis, putting Maharashtra’s Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis and his ruling Mahayuti coalition under immense pressure.


The Fadnavis government is struggling to manage a public relations disaster that threatens to derail its agenda and expose deep cracks within the alliance amid the ongoing local bodies’ elections.


Environmental Furore

The controversy blends environmental sensitivity with religious sentiment and commercial suspicion. Tapovan is considered the green lung of Nashik, a zone revered by locals as a site associated with Lord Ram’s exile. The city’s residents, supported by activists, view the trees as part of their heritage and their ecological defence against rising pollution and erratic weather. The breaking point came when the NMC not only announced the tree-felling for the Kumbh Mela preparations but also simultaneously floated a tender for a massive, permanent Rs. 220 Crore MICE Hub (business centre) on the very same holy ground. This dual action instantly fuelled public scepticism, leading to the inescapable conclusion that the government body was allegedly using the temporary need of the Kumbh Mela as a smokescreen to clear precious, holy land for a major commercial project. The citizens felt betrayed, believing their environmental and spiritual values were being sacrificed for a business deal. The scale of the proposed loss which involves the cutting of 1,825 trees has sparked a spontaneous, Chipko-style protest, with citizens physically embracing the trees marked for destruction.


Administrative Misstep

School children, local Hindu organizations, and environmental groups have all joined the agitation, turning the issue into a non-partisan battle for the soul of the city. The initial response from the government was slow, clumsy and politically defensive.


As leader of the state, Fadnavis had the opportunity to immediately step in, halt the process, and order a transparent review, thereby demonstrating environmental leadership and respect for public sentiment. Instead, the response was marked by a delayed and often contradictory defence. While the Chief Minister eventually stated that the government was opposed to “unnecessary cutting of trees,” he simultaneously attempted to downplay the severity, arguing that the land was largely vacant during the previous Kumbh Mela and that many trees were young plantations. This ham-fisted defence failed to address the core concern of the proposed commercial MICE Hub and the feeling that a local, sacred ecosystem was being destroyed.


This hesitancy and dismissiveness allowed the issue to fester, turning a local municipal error into a full-blown state-level political crisis. The speed and decisiveness that characterized the successful management of other megagatherings, like the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj under a similar political dispensation, were visibly absent in Nashik.


The crisis has also laid bare the fragility and competitive dynamics within the three-party Mahayuti alliance. By failing to contain the controversy, the BJP has provided both its rivals and its uneasy partners with political ammunition. The strongest public criticism came not just from the Opposition, but from within the ruling camp itself. Deputy CM Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction, through its prominent member and environmental activist, actor Sayaji Shinde, issued a stark warning that he would “oppose the government” if it insisted on the proposed tree-cutting drive. Pawar himself then publicly called for a “conciliatory approach,” stressing that maintaining environmental balance was as important as development.


This public posturing was seen as an attempt served to distance the NCP from Fadnavis’ ‘blunder’ and win public goodwill at the expense of the BJP. Similarly, while Deputy CM Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction has not been as vocal, the public ire against the BJP gives the other two Mahayuti parties a chance to gloat at their ‘bigger brother’ being perceived as ‘anti-environment.’


External rivals, like the Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT), and the MNS, have seized the moment, using the Tapovan controversy as a potent symbol of the government’s alleged greed and lack of empathy, a narrative that resonates strongly with the common voter.


The timing could not be more disadvantageous for the ruling establishment. With municipal and local body elections looming, the Tapovan tree-felling has become a powerful, highly visible local issue. The image of a government willing to allegedly bulldoze a community’s green heritage for a corporate centre is an emotionally charged narrative for local polls. The negative reports, protests and the public outcry now form the dominant backdrop against which the BJP and its allies will have to campaign. The widespread belief, as expressed by local citizens, is that the administration’s focus is skewed towards profit and construction rather than the preservation of Nashik’s unique identity and ecology. The failure to immediately and completely reverse the controversial decision, cancel the commercial tender, and involve local activists in an honest, transparent solution is translating directly into a loss of public trust that will undoubtedly be reflected at the ballot box. For Chief Minister Fadnavis, a leader known for his sharp political instincts and administrative grip, the Tapovan blunder represents a massive, self-inflicted wound. The cost of saving those 1,825 trees was a small investment in public relations and trust; the political cost of appearing to endorse their cutting for development is turning out to be shattering, undermining the unity of the Mahayuti government and providing a ready-made platform for the Opposition to campaign on. The crisis demands a decisive and transparent course correction to prevent the Tapovan controversy from defining the fate of the ruling alliance in the upcoming elections.


(The writer is a political observer. Views personal.)

Comments

bottom of page