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21 August 2024 at 3:50:16 pm

Optics First

On the very day Prime Minister Narendra Modi completed 25 years in executive office, Opposition leader and Congress scion Rahul Gandhi offered his own political counter-programme: another impromptu sit-in, another confrontation with the police and another opportunity for the cameras. It was difficult not to see it as an attempt to steal some of Modi’s thunder. The Opposition has alleged irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls and accused the Election Commission of bias. The ECI and...

Optics First

On the very day Prime Minister Narendra Modi completed 25 years in executive office, Opposition leader and Congress scion Rahul Gandhi offered his own political counter-programme: another impromptu sit-in, another confrontation with the police and another opportunity for the cameras. It was difficult not to see it as an attempt to steal some of Modi’s thunder. The Opposition has alleged irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls and accused the Election Commission of bias. The ECI and the government have rejected those allegations. The issue itself is serious and deserves scrutiny. But the increasingly elaborate choreography surrounding Rahul Gandhi’s protests raises a more pointed question: is the objective to persuade the electorate, pressure an institution or simply manufacture an image of permanent confrontation? The latest episode was hardly an isolated improvisation. In July, Rahul and Congress leaders turned up unexpectedly near the Prime Minister’s residence following student protests and demanded an FIR. A month later came another dramatic intervention at a police station over a student’s alleged pellet injury. Now comes the Akashvani Bhawan episode in form of a surprise dash on Gandhi’s part followed by an hours-long sit-in and eventual detention. There is nothing inherently undemocratic about street protest. But there is a distinction between making an issue impossible to ignore and making oneself impossible to ignore. Even Rahul’s INDIA bloc partners appear to have noticed that distinction. Reports suggest some allies were unhappy that what began as a joint Opposition protest increasingly came to resemble a Rahul Gandhi-led exercise, with questions also raised over the strategy and the demand to meet the Election Commission. That is a revealing fault line. A political movement requires a coherent argument, institutional pressure and, above all, a credible proposition about what should happen next. Rahul Gandhi may be trying to demonstrate that he is no longer merely the politician who speaks from the podium or posts on social media. He wants to be seen confronting power physically and visibly. That may energise his supporters. But political theatre has diminishing returns when the performance begins to overshadow the purpose. Rahul Gandhi once seemed determined to establish himself as an alternative to Narendra Modi through speeches, parliamentary interventions and the politics of the road. He now appears equally invested in establishing himself as the politician willing to physically confront the state. But politics is not a contest for the most arrestable photograph. If the allegation is “vote theft”, the burden is to establish the theft.The danger for Rahul Gandhi is that the spectacle eventually becomes bigger than the cause. If the argument is that Indian democracy is being hollowed out, the Opposition needs an argument capable of surviving after the cameras leave. Because politics cannot forever be optics first.

Unrest within Mahayuti

Writer: Abhijit Mulye
Abhijit Mulye
Jan 20, 2025
2 min read

Updated: Jan 21, 2025

Mahayuti

Mumbai: The state administration on Sunday stalled the appointments of guardian ministers in Raigad and Nashik districts. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had cleared the appointments before he left for Davos in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum on Saturday. They are believed to have been stalled on behest of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who heads the state in absence of the Chief Minister.


NCP’s Aditi Tatkare and BJP’s Girish Mahajan were entrusted with responsibilities of guardian minister for the Raigad and Nashik districts respectively, where Shiv Sena’s Bharat Gogawale and Dada Bhuse had staked claims. Gogawale is a first-time minister while, Bhuse had been the guardian minister of the district during previous government under Eknath Shinde.


Shiv Sena, NCP and BJP all the three constituents of Mahayuti have strong roots in both the districts. However, the Shiv Sena and the NCP had been particularly on loggerheads there. The Shiv Sena, which had been demanding the guardian minister’s post in Nashik district has managed to win only two assembly seats in the district where the NCP has Six and the BJP has Five MLAs. On the contrary, in Raigad the NCP has won only one seat while the Shiv Sena and the BJP both have Three MLAs each in the district.


Sunil Tatkare, MP from Raigad Lok Sabha constituency and the stat unit president of the NCP and father of Aditi Tatkare, had been the guardian minister of Raigad between 2004 and 2014. Gogawale had always been his political opponent before Tatkare joined the Mahayuti government under Ajit Pawar’s leadership in 2023. Gogawale claimed that all the Six Shiv Sena-BJP MLAs in the district had opined in his favour to be the guardian minister of the district and after the decision to appoint Aditi Tatkare was announced, his supporters resorted to violent protests. They burnt tyres in bid to stall traffic on highway in the district. Reacting to the developments, Tatkare said that the issue should be pondered over after CM Fadnavis returns from Davos on Saturday and settled amicably.


In Nashik Girish Mahajan had been the guardian minister of the district between 2014 and 2019 when Fadnavis was the Chief Minister.


The post of guardian minister doesn’t have any constitutional mandate and is considered to be a political appointment. Guardian ministers head the district planning and development councils (DPDC) that control the funds for development works being carried out in the particular district. This control wields much of political power to the minister in that district whereby spreading the party in the district becomes much easier. This is the reason why the grass root politicians seem to be very sensitive to such appointments.


While Gogawale and Bhuse are unhappy about not being appointed as guardian ministers, some others like NCP’s Hasan Mushrif and BJP’s Pankaja Munde are unhappy about not being appointed as guardian district in their home districts of Kolhapur and Beed respectively. DCM Shinde is learnt to have gone to his ancestral village Dare in Satara district after the decision and BJP’s firefighters Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Girish Mahajan are expected to meet him there to try finding a way out of the issue.

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