Ahmedabad: When it comes to elections, Indians &mdash; especially those who vote on the basis of ideology &mdash; believe that political parties and politicians are committed to the beliefs and ideologies that they preach to citizens. However, that is not the case.&nbsp;
This was evident in a revelation by a well-known political leader from Maharashtra. While exposing Indian politics, he revealed the &lsquo;real&rsquo; political game is played after every election.&nbsp;
Maharashtra&rsquo;s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, split the Nationalist Congress Party to ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde&rsquo;s Shiv Sena, to form the MahaYuti alliance government in Maharashtra.&nbsp;
In an interview with senior journalist Sreenivasan Jain for The News Minute, Pawar made stunning revelations about politics today, NCP leader Sharad Pawar and industrialist Gautam Adani. &nbsp;
Talking about political ideologies prevalent in Maharashtra politics, Ajit Pawar said, &ldquo;Ye Maharashtra main ye ideology ye vo mat puchho. Maharashtra ka pura politics sab badal gaya hai, abhi sab ko power chahiye. Sabne ideology side me rakh di hai, power leke aage sarkar banana chahte hai.&rdquo; (Translation: The political scene in Maharashtra has changed. Don&rsquo;t ask about ideology, since there isn&rsquo;t any. Everyone only wants power to form a government. Political parties are ready to align with anyone.)
Even though Ajit Pawar has not revealed anything new, we, the citizens need to stop turning a blind eye to unethical political practices and speak up. The harsh reality is that belief in the ruling party has turned into blind faith. If an act by the party is opposite to its ideologies, then an individual may dismiss it. However, if the same act is done by a political opponent from another party, people do not hesitate to call them out or label it &lsquo;murder of democracy.&rsquo;
What people need to realize is, that if they want their true representatives in panchayats or municipal corporations, state assemblies or the Parliament, they need to vote for the right candidate.
For instance, Union Home Minister Amit Shah&rsquo;s recent jibe at Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, for his party&rsquo;s alliance with the Indian National Congress (INC). Shah termed the alliance an &lsquo;insult to Balasaheb Thackeray&rsquo;, the founder of Shiv Sena.
Shah forgot that the same Balasaheb Thackeray was the only Indian politician, who publicly supported the 1975 Emergency, imposed by then Prime Minister the late Indira Gandhi. While the BJP was against imposing Emergency, it had an alliance with the Shiv Sena before a split till 2019. In 2022, both parties came together again, under the MahaYuti alliance after an internal split within the Shiv Sena led by current party chief Eknath Shinde.
Another startling example of &lsquo;politics of convenience&rsquo; is the BJP being opposed to NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) nominating Nawab Malik from the Mankhurd Shivajinagar constituency. BJP leaders have publicly declared that they will not campaign for Malik. However, if the BJP requires NCP&rsquo;s support after elections and Malik is elected to the Assembly, it will not hesitate in allying with him.
As citizens, understanding &lsquo;politics of convenience&rsquo; is in our best interest, be it the induction of corrupt politicians into a party we align with or alliance with a rival party with different ideologies. When it comes to power, political parties do not dither in securing favourable alliances, even at the cost of compromising their ideology and/or principles. The BJP and People&rsquo;s Democratic Party (PDP) alliance in Jammu &amp; Kashmir was a prime example of such political manoeuvres.
Coming back to Ajit Pawar&rsquo;s remarks, he termed veteran NCP leader Sharad Pawar &ldquo;unpredictable&rdquo;. Claiming that &ldquo;no one can read his mind.&rdquo;
He also disclosed details of a meeting that took place almost five years ago, to discuss an alliance between the BJP and the NCP. Pawar said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, NCP leader Praful Patel, industrialist Gautam Adani and himself attended the meeting. The presence of political is understandable if they were discussing a possible alliance. The big question is, what was Adani doing at this meeting? Is it not dangerous for industrialists to play the role of mediator or power broker for an alliance between two political parties. Shouldn&rsquo;t it alert and/or alarm us?
The disclosure is yet another indicator that political parties are more interested in furthering their own business interests than upholding the rights and welfare of the country&rsquo;s citizens.
As the saying goes, &lsquo;Better late than never&rsquo;, if we can wake up and realize the true agenda of politicians and political parties, we may stand to make a better future for ourselves as well as coming generations.

(Left to Right) Maha Deputy CM Devendra Fadanvis, CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar

As political alliances shift constantly, citizens need to rethink their allegiances

Power is the only ideology of Maha politics today: Ajit Pawar

As political alliances shift constantly, citizens need to rethink their allegiances

November 12, 2024 | 17:32 IST