Newsmaker: Ajit Pawar

Gaffe-prone maverick

On Thursday morning, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar surprised friends and colleagues by calling them up to offer his wishes on the occasion of Gudi Padwa in an uncharacteristically polite tone. It took everyone little time to realise that the minister was trying to rebuild his image that had taken a severe beating after his insensitive comments a few days back.

Addressing a public gathering in Nanded on April 6, Pawar shot his mouth off saying: "I have come to know that because power goes off in the night, many children are being born. When there is no power, people seem to have no other work."

He topped it with another remark. "If there is no water in the dam, how can we release it? Should we urinate into it? If there is no water to drink, even urination is not possible," he asked the villagers who were demanding more water for their drought-hit region .

These statements, even by the abysmal standards of public discourse in India, were crass enough to kick up a storm. The opposition began to bay for his blood. Pawar was quick to realise his faux pas. On Monday, he turned emotional while pleading his case before his supporters and declared that he was ashamed to even enter the Assembly. As he stayed out of the Assembly, his supporters were left with the difficult task of defending him inside.

Until he made those insensitive comments, Pawar had everything going for him, politically, at least. A large number of party leaders as well as frontline workers say that it was Pawar who was solely responsible for the Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) resurgence in the recent civic and local body elections; the party even surpassed the Congress in the election. His supporters would argue, till recently, that Pawar would be instrumental in the party winning at least 100 seats in the 288-member state Assembly and 15 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 elections.

However, Pawar, who is the nephew of Union Agriculture Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, has been isolated in his party by his "urine" remark. Party leaders in private have begun raising questions over fighting the 2014 elections under his leadership.

In fact, the entire Pawar family is believed to be disturbed by the remarks. Sharad Pawar cancelled his political engagements and tendered an apology through Twitter. Although Pawar, too, has apologised for his remarks at several occasions, including in the state Assembly, few believe he has been well-meaning in seeking forgiveness.

Opposition parties and NGOs are bent on his resignation, despite Pawar having admitted that it was the biggest mistake in his political career of over three decades.

But then the Maratha leader, who has never hidden his ambition to become the chief minister of Maharashtra, does not believe in pursuing politics by the book. Pawar is particularly popular with the youth, amongst whom he has the image of a doer. He has never made any attempt to hide his brash and brazen style. Many party leaders say Pawar has been stern in his dealings with ministers and bureaucrats alike. "At one of the Cabinet meetings of the Congress-NCP government in 2001, Pawar had asked the then chief minister, the late Vilasarao Deshmukh, not to intervene in the ministries or be ready to face the consequences," recalls a senior NCP leader who doesn't want to be identified. "He had the guts to contradict Deshmukh."

This is not the first time that Pawar has landed in a spot for his thoughtless speech. In 2011, at a function in Nanded, in Maharashtra, Pawar attacked the media for its alleged half-baked reporting. He suggested such reporters should be caned. This led to a boycott by journalists across the state; they relented only after Sharad Pawar tendered an apology on behalf of his nephew.

Sadanand More, a writer, expresses concern over the rapidly depleting level of decency among politicians in the state. "Maharashtra has got a rich political culture and tradition. Political leaders used to keep all sections together and regularly interact with writers, artists and thinkers apart from party members. Pawar, however, is always seen with his followers," he notes.

The current controversy has erupted when Pawar is under attack for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore irrigation scam in the state. Initially, he put up a brave front by declaring that it was a concerted effort by his critics to tarnish his image, and thereby, malign him and NCP. Pawar had even dropped sufficient hints that the leaks on the irrigation scam were engineered by the chief minister's office. Prithviraj Chavan, though, has categorically denied such claims. Not the one to give up, Pawar also targeted Chavan for his slow pace of decision-making under the pretext of transparency.

In recent months, Pawar had been making serious attempt to shed his "arrogant" tag. He even declared that he was making efforts to be polite and decent in his language. But just when things were settling down for him, trouble has erupted again.

Family members and his supporters believe that Pawar will have to be extremely careful in the future. He should be aware that Sharad Pawar, who has already declared his decision to retire from elective politics, won't always be there to rescue him.