Few interesting news items/stories of last 2/3 days across the country, which I would like to share with you and my opinion on the same.
1 On Sunday (10th Nov), in T20I between India & Bangladesh, India Deepak Chahar become the first Indian bowler to take hat trick in T20I game. India batting first scored 174/5 in their allotted 20 overs with 50s from Shreyas Iyer (62) and KL Rahul (52). While chasing the target of 175, Bangladesh were comfortably placed at 106/2 in 12 overs, with 69 runs needed in 8 overs, they could have won the match and series but it was not their night. For them the disaster struck , whose name was Deepak Chahar, and with his swingers Deepak took 6 wickets for cost of 7 runs including hat trick, and Bangladesh were all out for 144 runs. In the process Deepak Chahar’s analysis of 6 wickets for 7 runs is all time best bowling in T20I matches.
The critics were ga ga with Shreyas Iyer’s performance in this match and according to them India has al last found a batsman who can bat at no. 4 position in T20 matches. In my opinion Shreyas is a good dedicated batsman but it is too early to allot him no.4 batting position in T20 matches.
2 Maharashtra Govt formation-Even after 19 days of poll result still there is no sign of govt formation. The 4 major parties who contested elections, were locked in 2 pre poll alliances, BJP with Shiv Sena and Congress with NCP. After the results it was clear that alliance of BJP & Shiv Sena will form govt as they have won the clear majority of 161 seats out of 288, but Shiv Sena started talking about forming govt on 50:50 basis, with sharing of important portfolios and even 2.5 years term for CM from each party, as per their President Udhav Thackrey this was agreed between him and BJP President Amit Shah before Lok Sabha election. The outgoing CM of BJP Devendra Phadnavis gave the statement that nothing of this sort was agreed upon. Udhav Thackrey struck to this point and nothing happened. Full country was waiting about the govt formation and then after 16 days of the poll result Governor invited the biggest party BJP to look into the possibility of forming govt, and revert back within 24 hours. After the time limit was over BJP informed Governor they are not in position to form govt as they do not have requisite numbers. Governor then invited 2nd largest party Shiv Sena to form govt and revert back by 7.30 pm on Monday (11th Nov), and Sena was very confident that they will be able to form the govt with support of NCP and Congress, as when the negotiations between BJP and Sena were taking place, Udhav was in touch with Sharad Pawar for getting NCP and Congress’s support in forming the govt. But yesterday Congress dilly dally in confirming the support to Shiv Sena and in the mean time deadline expired. Now governor send the invitation to next party NCP with same deadline of 24 hours.
Now it is very clear that as NCP is in alliance Congress and both of them have 98 seats, whereas majority mark is 145, so they will need Shiv Sena’s support(56 seats), but Shiv Sena wants to have their own CM, so NCP also can not form govt. So is Maharashtra heading for President’s rule?
In my opinion even if President’s rule happens, that will be only for short while, because Congress is willing to support Shiv Sena provided Congress/NCP/Shiv Sena agree for common minimum programme, for which Sonia Gandhi has requested Sharad Pawar to look into it. Udhav Thackrey has become so desperate to install Shiv Sena’s CM ( which can be either himself or his son Aditya) that he will agree for any common minimum programme.
But what is happening in Maharashtra, the voters are feeling betrayed. In general the voters either voted for BJP/Shiv Sena alliance or NCP/Congress alliance, but what is going to happen is something else. In fact the electorate have given the clear verdict for BJP/Shiv Sena alliance, now it might happen that NCP/Congress will indirectly rule through Shiv Sena, and every one knows what happened in the 15 years when Congress/NCP were ruling Maharashtra. No body has forgotten Irrigation scam, Maharashtra State Co Op bank scam, Adrash Scam and so many other scams. At least during BJP rule (where Shiv Sena was junior partner) under Devendra Fadnavis as CM, there was no major scams, and there was feeling of clean govt.
It is a known fact that PUTRA MOH (love for one’s son) has ruined so many kingdom in the earlier day, and so many parties in modern India-for example Dhrithrashtra’s love for Duryodhan, Indira Gandhi’s love for Sanjay & Rajiv, Sonia Gandhi’s love for Rahul, Mulayam Singh Yadav/son Akhilesh Yadav, Kaunanidhi/son MK Stalin, Laloo Prasad Yadav/son Tejashwi, Farooq Abdullha/son Omar Abdullha and now Udhav Thackrey/son Aditya. Even in Udhav’s case he became President of Shiv Sena because he was son of Bal Thackrey, because Udhav was never in politics with Bala Saheb, in fact it was his nephew Raj Thackrey who from the very young age was with his uncle Bala saheb in politics, but in the end he was sidelined for Udhav.
Secondly I fail to understand, all the time Shiv Sena has spoken against the policies of Congress which are basically minority appeasement, and today Udhav is asking support from them to form govt, forget about NCP they do not have any policy, they just want to be in power and make money. So what does it mean that your party’s policies which are based on strong Hindutva are meaningless when it comes to govt formation at any cost. What about Congress-how they can align themselves with strong right wing Hindu party, will it not affect their minority vote bank in future. Or it is only for keeping BJP away from power in Maharashtra.
But friends whenever Congress has given support/outside support to any other political party, that govt has never lasted its full term whether it is at Centre or state. Latest example is Karnataka govt of Kumar Swamy of Janata Dal. Past examples are Charan Singh, Chandrashekhar, HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral govts at centre. So even Shiv Sena forms the govt with support of Congress, it is no guarantee that it will last its full term.
What you say my friends.
Awaiting your views/feed backs/comments.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
12th Nov 2019