SHOULD PAWAR HEAD THE UPA?
There have been stories in the media about whether Sharad Pawar should take over the leadership of the UPA, especially with Sonia Gandhi taking a step back from active politics and Rahul still to establish the same level of connect with the allies. There have also been examples in the past where the leader of a smaller party takes over the leadership of a coalition, as NTR did with the National Front, for instance. Certainly no one is better at cobbling numbers than Pawar for as political commentator Rasheed Kidwai recalled recently on Roundtable
(Newsx) about a quote that is loosely attributed to Pawar: apparently, when asked what does two plus two equal to, Pawar is said to have retorted, depends on if you are buying or selling. However, while Pawar enjoys status and experience the one thing he lacks is trust. For as veteran journalist and editor PTI Bhasha, Nirmal Pathak pointed out in the same show, “Don’t forget what S.B. Chavan said when asked how come Pawar’s name didn’t figure in the Jain-hawala diary? Chavan is said to have commented, because hawala transactions involve trust.” In fact, one is still not quite sure as to Sharad Pawar’s role in the midnight swearing in of his nephew Ajit Pawar as the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister. Was Ajit led into this move by his uncle, because there was that meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pawar that preceded it? And yet, it was none other than Sharad Pawar who pulled the rug under that hastily cobbled coalition between Ajit and the BJP, and installed a much more stable government in place, bringing together the Sena and the Congress. Hence, in the world of Sharad Pawar, two plus two does not always come up with the expected answer.