Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Shiv Sena tamed by BJP' that was published in Newsband

Shiv Sena tamed by BJP

The Shiv Sena joined the Devendra Fadnavis government without its major demands being met; the party will not have a deputy chief minister, nor will it get the home portfolio. For sure, the Bharatiya Janata Party needed the numbers of the Sena as the “unconditional support” of the Nationalist Congress Party, a scam-tainted foe-turned-friend, was neither reliable nor desirable.

The Sena is now playing second fiddle to the BJP because it has no other choice. The Sena and the BJP can be in the government together for a long while, but when the next election comes they may have to take a hard decision to either go together or part ways. 

Current reality is that the BJP is in a position to capture the imagination of the people. It is good that a self interested party is pushed back by the far sighted BJP. Country and its people must be considered as foremost important. Maharashtra people realized this but not political parties. If any necessity arises for re-election, people will teach lessons to self interested parties.

All that matters now is how early they regain harmony in decisions related to governance and mold the rift created due to elections. If this happens soon then we will see effective decision making by a proactive government which will help the common man for whose benefit the election was fought.

Our of 30 member ministry, Shiv Sena has got 10 ministers, including 5 Cabinet Ministers. This is one third of the total ministers. The patch up between BJP and Siva Sena is very promising at least for time-being. Numerical upper hand of the BJP was just not enough to have a stable government. The unconditional support offered by the NCP was the most dangerous one. With its hidden agenda, the corrupt NCP had ruined Congress and they would have repeated the same with BJP as well. Now the BJP-Shiva Sena combine has an absolute majority. It is good that BJP didn’t sway to the demands of the Sena and at the end they succeeded in taming the Sena .

Political parties all over India (including the so-called mainstream parties Congress and BJP) have come to recognize that regional arrangements and alignments are very much necessary in our present democratic stage. Although our democratic systems and their overall functioning have come to stay, the complexities of various local needs based on ethnicity, culture, groupings, social structure and economic structure come into play that are to be seriously considered and understood for any party to take up governance.

Shiv Sena and BJP which are birds of the same feather can't be away from one another for too long. The paper tiger of Maharashtra licked the wounds, and surrendered meekly accepting whatever is on offer. It is too tempting to stay out of power, as there is too much money at stake. Prestige comes with power and can be resurrected before the next elections. India is unique as voters in all parts of India have similar resignation towards their fate. They accept whatever is dropped on their plate from time to time. Be it Jayalalitha's idli in TN or Modi's Chai, it really doesn't matter as long as there is some tamasha going on in the parliament and assemblies to entertain them.