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.

Mystery, spat as 107 Pakistanis 'missing' since 2012

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis felicitates singer Shankar Mahadevan for agreeing to become the brand ambassador of the 'Maharashtra Public Service Commission' in Mumbai.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis felicitates singer Shankar Mahadevan for agreeing to become the brand ambassador of the 'Maharashtra Public Service Commission' in Mumbai.

Mumbai: The state is a mute witness to an ugly public brawl between Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde over the exact number of Pakistan nationals who may be allegedly ‘missing’ in the state.

 

At a rally in Buldhana on Sunday Shinde roared and claimed that 107 Pakistanis are reportedly untraceable in the state, embarrassing the Mahayuti alliance administration.

 

Attempting a damage control from Pune, Fadnavis promptly made a surgical strike on Shinde’s claims, asserting that “no Pakistani is missing in the state and all are accounted for”, as the process to pack them off to Pakistan is in full swing.

 

However, exactly 12 years ago, the (then) Congress-Nationalist Congress Party regime had admitted on record that 107 Pak nationals were ‘untraceable’ in the state and all efforts were on to trace them out by the police and other agencies.

 

On March 18, 2013, the former Home Minister, the late R. R. Patil had given a written reply in the legislature that till December 31, 2012, as many as 107 Pakistanis had gone ‘underground’, sparking concerns.

 

He also cited the figures of other Pakistanis staying here legally on valid visas of different categories, or extended visas, plus 60 more living illegally of whom two were in jail.

 

Thereafter, the matter lay buried and never again came to the fore, till last week’s terror strike in Pahalgam in which 26 tourists, including 6 from Maharashtra, were massacred in the meadowy Baisaran Valley.

 

Politicians and security experts, speaking off-the-record, frowned at how such a sensitive matter could be raised in a public rally, that too by a person not directly concerned with the state Home Department, or even the counter to it.

 

Nevertheless, they argue that being a senior state functionary, Shinde’s words carry weight and the people of the state are entitled to know the truth about the so-called Pakistanis whose whereabouts were/are not known.

 

A question bugging political circles and security experts is “from where did Shinde get the figure of 107” in the current scenario, or was he relying on the information already available on official record.

 

Although anything pertaining to Pakistan is considered ultra-sensitive, in view of the recent incidents in Pahalgam, the Mumbai Police or home department must shed light on the status of the purportedly ‘missing’ Pakistanis, from 2013, suggest the specialists.

 

Experts decry public debate

A security expert and former Additional Deputy Commissioner, State Intelligence Department (SID) Shirish Inamdar, reluctantly agreed to go on-record by stating that “since this involves a matter of national security, the citizens have a right to the know the truth”.

 

“The subject is already in public domain, so the government should quickly dispel false notions and reveal the genuine data. What was the progress in the weeding out operations after the 2013 admission in the Legislature? Whether that figure (107) - went up, or down, or remains static - and why?” Inamdar told The Perfect Voice.

 

A former senior police official, preferring anonymity, said that it’s the job of the Mumbai Police Special Branch-II, Pakistan Desk to keep tabs on all the Pakistanis entering/leaving the state via Mumbai.

 

Citing the examples of Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley and Pakistan-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana – whose involvement in the 26/11 terror strikes came to fore – he cautioned that if there are any such elements ‘missing’, they must be tracked down priority to rule out the likelihood of mischief in future.

Comments

bottom of page