The State of Politics

The state of politics in Maharashtra seems to be anchored around two determinations that, in their logic, have entangled three parties: the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena. One of the determinations suggests that these three parties must form the government in the state, while the other suggests that these parties should form the government. The word “must” underlies the necessity, while the word “should” suggests desirability. While these parties under reference seem to be vacillating between the two determinations, the “political imposter,” for whom being politically correct has become a habit, has definite suggestions particularly for both the Congress and the NCP, in that such parties “must” not form the government with Shiv Sena. The word “must” in such suggestions assigns a fixed direction to electoral politics and does not leave any space for deliberation. Some of the political commentators who, on moral grounds, hold a “pure” view of politics, find all the three parties not qualified enough to form the government. According to this view, both the Congress and the NCP have a shaky commitment to “secularism.” However, in the midst of such scepticism, the deliberations among the three parties are on and, as the media reports suggest, seem to be heading towards the formation of the government.

Although the deliberations between them remained quite tentative, these parties do not seem to have put a final closure on the deliberations that are expected to lead to the formation of the government. Arguably, deliberations that have been happening for some time in an opaque form do indicate that these parties are admitting in such deliberations their respective considerations that suggest forming the government has now become a practical necessity. The consideration, particularly coming from the Congress and the NCP, involves some degree of studied ambiguity, which is “clear” in their political moves that are made with care and caution. This “care” and “caution” seem to have avoided the notion of “impossibility” in the deliberation.