By Kumkum Chadha
The past week has been a mixed bag: tears, sorrow, joy, jubilation and anger. If the centre is elated, there is grief and anger in the states of Maharashtra and West Bengal, respectively.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is hopping mad. Targeting the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar she called the Election Commission “agents of BJP” alleging: “They talk as if they are landlords and we, their servants”. Banerjee was leading a delegation of party MPs on the issue of voters’ names being deleted from the draft rolls during the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, exercise.
Post-meeting Banerjee called the Election Commission “liars and arrogant”. The Commission in turn alleged that TMC MLAs used “abusive and threatening language” against the CEC. “She misbehaved, thumped the table and left”, sources said.
While on thumping tables, if Banerjee did it in anger, NDA MPs did it out of joy and jubilation. When Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, read out the country’s Union Budget on February 1, she created a history of sorts by presenting her ninth consecutive budget. This is one short of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s record of 10 budgets except they were during different time periods: six when he was Union finance minister between 1959 and 1964 and four between 1967 and 1969. Congress’ P Chidambaram too has presented the Budget nine times, but not consecutively.
By comparison Sitharaman presented nine straight budgets under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She also changed tradition: from the customary brief case she switched to a bahi khata, a clear departure from what the BJP sees as a “colonial hangover”.
For record, a bahi-katha, is a cloth bound ledger, in red colour, that Indian traders have traditionally used to maintain their accounts.
Sitharaman also holds the record for delivering the longest Budget speech: two hours and 40 minutes in 2020. A year later, when the budget became paperless, Sitharaman started carrying a made-in-India tablet. The colour significance notwithstanding, it was carefully wrapped in a red pouch. In India, red is a colour that is considered auspicious.
But back to the treasury benches and the applause at regular intervals from NDA MPs that Sunday morning: a visible and perhaps welcome display of coalition bonhomie. Every few minutes, members from the ruling party thumped their desks, perhaps taking a cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who publicly hailed the budget terming it as India’s “Reform Express” and a “highway of endless opportunities”.
The Opposition take: this was “much ado about nothing”. To quote Trinamool Congress MP, Sougata Roy, the budget was both “colourless and odourless”.
However, the budget is only one part of the story. The BJP has more to showcase: the two deals dubbed as the “mother and father” of all deals: the EU and the US trade deal, respectively.
When the two countries signed the Indian European Union Free Trade Agreement, it was hailed as “the mother of all deals”. This is less about the scale of the deal and more about an opportunity to move away from the US; in other words, a global shift in trade alignments. It is also about accommodation and the EU’s willingness and spirit of give and take as it were versus the take it or leave it approach of the US vis-a-vis India.
The US on its part lost no time and within days of the India-EU trade agreement, the two countries signed a trade pact slashing tariffs on Indian exports from the punitive 50 percent to 18 percent: among the lowest among competitors.
Quite expectedly, US President Donald Trump jumped the gun and took to social media to announce the deal before India could. This time around the deal was called “father of all deals” to quote nominated Rajya Sabha MP, Harsh Vardhan Shringla.
While the stock-market plunged after the Union Budget, post the India US deal, it not only recovered, but to quote media reports, “the best day in over eight months”.
Significantly, both the deals are less about the fine print or who got more and who less factor. They are about perception and timing. The fact that the US deal came close on the heels of the EU pact is reason enough for the BJP to flag that Trump buckled.
Facts apart, the perception of Prime Minister Modi working from a position of strength coupled with his “far sightedness” in partnering with countries other than the US, is a theme that the BJP and the government will, decidedly, hammer for political gain.
Amid trade-deals, tariff, tax and finances brouhaha, one story that has been pushed in the background are the goings-on in the state of Maharashtra: the tragedy, the death and the political developments that have followed: rather the swiftness with which they have followed.
Even as the state was grappling with the harsh reality of its Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s death in a plane crash, his widow, Sunetra was sworn in. More than the decision it was the timing that was under scrutiny. Apart from Sunetra being a surprise choice, her induction as deputy chief minister was unexpected.
For starters, she is untested in politics, her debut being the 2024 Lok Sabha election which she fought against one of her own: her sister-in-law Supriya Sule.
However, that was not the first dent in the family that loves to project its close bond. Sule has always held that family ties are distinct from politics. This despite the fact that her cousin, the late Ajit Pawar, damaged the NCP and undermined the supremacy of his uncle and mentor Sharad Pawar. His angst: Pawar senior promoted his daughter and saw her as his political heir. As for Sule, she maintained a dignified silence over the goings-on and never said anything publicly to belittle her cousin.
Even after Ajit’s death she was seen standing solidly with Sunetra, lending her the emotional support that a widow needs in the face of a tragedy.
Cracks however appeared, yet again, when Sunetra was hastily sworn into the state cabinet: an event Supriya, her father and his supporters stayed away from. In fact, Sharad Pawar is on record to state that he was neither consulted nor informed about the decision to anoint Sunetra. This could only be music to BJP’s ears because talks of a merger between the two NCP factions were progressing during Ajit’s lifetime. His untimely death, therefore, is both a political and personal blow, in that order, to Sharad Pawar.
Sunetra’s induction has further muddied the waters because under the changed circumstances, talks of a merger are far-fetched. And this is clearly advantage-BJP.
Therefore, to say that the BJP is on a high is stating the obvious. Having bagged two trade deals and events in Maharashtra unfolding the way the BJP would want, is nothing short of a windfall. Club all this and the BJP is all set for a smooth ride, at least in the immediate future.
—The writer is an author, journalist and political commentator
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