No truth ... everything else but the truth

Mahatma Gandhi believed and preached the significance and importance of Truth. He expected that the world took the path of Truth and Non-violence. However, those who claim to be his followers often travel the other direction. Perhaps because they are fully aware that if they take the path of Truth, they would never reach their desired destination of Power. It is, thus, futile to believe and expect any political leader to come out with utter truth, at least on public platform. Therefore, whatever Sharad Pawar said in his marathon public interview with Raj Thackeray should be taken with a pinch of salt. Pawar is undoubtedly the highest towering leader of Maharashtra and Raj is considered to be an ‘Angry Young Leader’ about 25 years younger to Pawar. His public interview with Pawar was over-hyped and thus the BMCC Ground of Pune was over crowded with young and old political enthusiasts. As all Marathi news channels broadcast the interview live and other social media like Facebook, Instagram also joined the campaign; the Wednesday evening really was only ‘Pawar and Raj’ event at least for Marathi speaking people in the state.

The hope and expectation of all those who listened to the long event was that the veteran Pawar would speak out the ‘Truth, the only Truth and nothing but the Truth’ that would reveal the secrets of his success and failures in his long half-a-century journey in political life. To the utter dismay of all, Pawar spoke guarded and in the process, hid the facts of history and often came out with complete lie. It is said, ‘you cannot fool all of the people all of the time’. The same way, those who have some knowledge, information and memories about the past knew that whatever Pawar spoke was far away from facts. Pawar won the show

Surely, Pawar won the show as he spoke with a mild smile on his face and answered all questions quickly in controlled, polished and mild language. But I am surprised about the stance that Raj took. Known for his blatant and no holds bar approach, it was widely expected that he would pose some pointed and sharp question to compel Pawar to reveal the truth. Quite contrary to these expectations, Raj, who had come with a good home work (and was often referring to his notes) did not pose even a single question that could have put Pawar in docks. Yes, at one point he did ask a question about his hope to become the prime minister but in the same breath he directed the question to Pawar’s career in sports activities. The shrewd politician that Pawar is, spent some good ten minutes in describing his sports activities and won brownie points. The question of his PM-post hope remained in cold storage. Truth not revealed

There were many such incidents, where Pawar did not reveal the truth, nor did Raj insist on it. While talking about farmers’ plight, Pawar said that farmers in Maharashtra have been committing suicide for many years. However, he hid the fact that the number of suicides in Maharashtra had skyrocketed when he was the Union Agriculture Minister. Raj did not come out with facts and figures and let Pawar go. During the question-answers, Pawar repeatedly mentioned about his warm relations with Thackeray family and often praised late Balasaheb Thackeray. His statements were received with huge rounds of applause. However, he did not mention that in such cordial family relationship, why couldn’t he prevent his party leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who was the then home minister, from making all efforts to arrest the old leader? Raj did not ask him about it. Raj also did not probe in to Pawar’s move to declare ‘outside support’ to the BJP government even before all the results of 2014 Assembly elections were yet to be out. His NCP helped Devendra Fadnavis to win the crucial confidence vote on the floor of the Assembly. These were relevant questions. Is it that Raj did not want to ask anything to Pawar that would have given boost to Shiv Sena?

Whatever may be the reasons, Raj lost the best opportunity to corner the political supremo of Maharashtra. Pawar is known for his contribution for Cricket, He introduced the IPL Games in India. During his time, the infamous match fixing scandals surfaced and people lost the faith and confidence in ‘good’ Cricket. Now people say that the public interview of Pawar was also ‘fixed’. The questions remain to be answered is, who fixed this match? And why? Who was the beneficiary? Raj? Pawar? Or both?

If it was really a ‘fixed game’, then it remained only a mild entertainment show. Was that the purpose?

The writer is a political analyst and former Member of Parliament (RS)