The MVA government leads a charmed existence

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray

The Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra seems to live a charmed existence. Last week it looked as though the government might collapse under the weight of the allegations made by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh that Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had asked some policemen to collect Rs 100 crore on a monthly basis from 1,700-odd bars and hookah parlours in Mumbai. It seemed inevitable that Deshmukh would have to resign, and in the process pull the government down with him.

However, it turned out that the days on which Singh alleged that Deshmukh instructed junior police officers to extort money from bars, he was hospitalised with COVID-19. Deshmukh could not have been in hospital and behind his office desk at the same time. For the moment, NCP chief Sharad Pawar seems to have bought the explanation and has backed the home minister to the hilt. Neither will Deshmukh resign, nor will the government collapse, though an enquiry will be instituted into the allegations, which might not have been the outcome the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was expecting.

Target Deshmukh

Sources within the government and the police establishment who spoke with this author raise questions about the unsigned letter accusing the minister, some even wondering if the hands of the IT cell of a prominent party is behind it. In unrelated news, Deshmukh has been investigating the BJP’s IT cell for alleged acts of anti-government activity, among other things.

There also could be other reasons why Deshmukh is on the Opposition’s radar. He hails from Nagpur, the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and home turf of former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who has been trying hard for the past 14 months to corner the MVA government. More about the Nagpur factor later in the article.

Moreover, the controversy over an explosives-laden car discovered in South Mumbai now seeming to have links to terror organisations would have shaken the government had not Deshmukh acted swiftly, accusing Singh of lapses in the investigation and sacking him from his post.

The Undercurrents

However, apart from the interplay between former allies the BJP and the Shiv Sena, there have been other undercurrents that brought the MVA government to the brink from which it pulled back just in time.

Pawar has been somewhat miffed with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for allowing several extra-constitutional authorities to interfere in the state's governance, and, perhaps, was of a mind to allow Thackeray to thrash about in a clueless fashion for a little while in order to bring home the fact that it takes veterans like him to rescue a government — and not his near and dear ones.

Once it became apparent that if not nipped in the bud the clamour for Deshmukh's head would jeopardise both the NCP and the MVA government, both Pawar and Sanjay Raut, the Shiv Sena MP essentially responsible for the MVA, issued statements in support, demanded an enquiry and action against erring officials, thereby rescuing a government they cannot afford to lose.

The Nagpur Factor

Here, there is a bit of background to understand in order to see the larger picture.

Deshmukh was never Pawar's first choice for Home Minister. What has worked in his favour is that he hails from Nagpur where neither the Shiv Sena nor the NCP has a presence. This gives him an edge in checking the growth of the BJP and becoming a limited counter to the RSS in its own headquarters.

In this, he is also getting backed by the Congress whose state chief Nana Patole had not only earlier accused the BJP of stage-managing the discovery of the explosives-laden car but also accused Fadnavis of ‘hafta’ collection while he was Chief Minister. Notably, Patole also hails from Nagpur and here we see a rare cohesion between the allies and ganging up against the BJP.

Many in the Opposition would have thought that the Congress, once the controversy broke out, would pull the plug on the alliance government. After all, while the United Progressive Alliance was in power, the Congress buckled under pressure and enforced the resignation of its ministers. The grand old party seems to have learnt from experience and is now silent over the whole issue.

Proactive MVA

Thus, within the MVA, the allies stood together and there was a tacit understanding to not allow the BJP even nominal success on this issue. Rather than going on the back foot, the MVA has been proactive, and thus the immediate transfers of more than 80 police officers in a single day.

The MVA has also, perhaps to put pressure on the BJP, threatened to reopen the investigation into the death of Judge Loya and ferret out previous cases of corruption against the Fadnavis government.

All that remains now is for Thackeray to make sure the two facilitators of his government —Pawar and Raut — continue to smile upon his good office. They, after all, know best how to beat the BJP at its own game.