The Maratha Pawar experiment

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: The apparent raison d’etre for launching the Nationalist Congress Party was the issue of the so called foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi. But this was not Sharad Pawar’s first revolt in the Congress.

In 1978, he revolted to topple the government led by his own leader, Vasantdada Patil. Patil was the CM of a Congress coalition. The coalition had become inevitable because the party led by Mrs Indira Gandhi had split after her defeat in 1977. There were two Congresses—one led by Mrs Gandhi and the other led by Brahmananda Reddy and Yashwantrao Chavan. Chavan had been Pawar’s mentor from the start of his political career, nearly 45 years ago. Indira Congress and Chavan-Reddy Congress formed the coalition and Mr Patil was the CM.

But Pawar, then about 40 years of age, networked with MLAs of the then Janata Party (which included the Jan Sangh and the socialists) and quietly formed the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF). To everybody’s shock and awe, he led a revolt and toppled Patil’s government. He and many of his associates had thought that Mrs Gandhi would never come back and the Janata Party would be a force in the future. So with the help of Janata-men in the state and with the blessings of Janata government at the centre, he became Maharashtra CM.

It is necessary to remember this context. The point is, even if there was no issue of Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin, something else would have cropped up (or been invented by Pawar) to revolt. There are several socio-psychological and political reasons for this.

Pawar represents a certain class and caste in Maharashtra: the local Marathi bourgeoisie. This middle level, semi-agricultural and very enterprising community backed by mercantile Mumbai grew in power and prestige after the state was formed.

Chavan and Pawar are both Marathas by caste. The Marathas are predominant in almost all fields, demographically nearing 35%. Ever since Maharashtra came into existence, this caste and class had been in power, often at the cost of other castes. But somehow, their local clout never got translated into a national stake in power.