On May 15, 1998, Rajesh Pilot, P A Sangma, Tariq Anwar and Sharad Pawar were sitting in the latter’s house in New Delhi – in a mood that matched the simmering heat of the summer afternoon. There was no way they were going to accept Sonia Gandhi, a foreigner, leading the Congress. The four glowering men came to a decision – they would leave the Congress the next day and launch a new party, the Nationalist Congress Party.
But, the next day, though Pawar, Sangma and Tariq Anwar showed up at the press conference to announce their new party, Pilot was missing. He had driven straight from Pawar’s residence to 10, Janpath Road to get word across to Sonia Gandhi about the conspiracy within the ranks. And, when a journalist asked Pawar about Pilot’s whereabouts, he flashed the quintessential smile that conveys an understanding of how convenience overrides principle in politics.
It is thus little wonder that, some years down the line, he became a coalition partner with the same Sonia Gandhi-led Congress.
Another story illustrative of Pawar’s career describes how Chandrashekhar introduced the Maratha politician to Bhairon Singh Shekhawat during the Janata Party regime and the two young men then went on to humour Morarji Desai, who would treat Pawar somewhat dismissively. Subsequently, Chandrashekhar once walked in on the three sitting deep in discussion. When a surprised Chandrashekhar asked Desai what he was doing, the latter replied that the two were learning his saumutra technique so that they could implement it in their respective states. Chandrasekhar was aghast and later said he wondered which of the two was the wilier.
Sharad Chandra Govindrao Pawar made his entry into politics through a byelection in 1969, the protégé of Y B Chavan. Through Chavan, Pawar became president of the Youth Congress and General Secretary, PCC, in charge of the youth wing. That was an era full of Maratha stalwarts like Vasantrao Naik, Y B Chavan, Babasaheb Bhonsle, S B Chavan et al, and the young Pawar learnt from them – in time emerging as a leader of stature himself, known in Maharashtra as “Bhau Saheb” or elder brother.
In January 1978, when the Congress split and Indira Gandhi formed her own party, Y B Chavan did not go along with her. He chose to use his resources to strengthen the Congress (R) of Brahmanand Reddy. Vasantdada Patil was Chief Minister of Maharashtra and, though there was no love lost between him and Y B Chavan, Pawar was appointed Agriculture Minister. But he resigned soon and formed the People’s Democratic Front. Then, within a year, he took over the Congress (R) and became its president with the help of Ambika Soni, who was its general secretary. The party now became known as the Congress (S) and Pawar led it during Indira Gandhi’s stint in the Opposition, later merging it with the Congress. During this period, he also became Chief Minister of Maharashtra for the first time.
But Pawar has a streak of insubordination that has consistently surfaced. In the 1988 Assembly elections, he was unable to secure tickets for his supporters. Enraged, he rebelled against the Congress leadership, ensuring the defeat of the party’s candidates.
In the void left by Rajiv Gandhi’s death, when P V Narasimha Rao was in the race for the Prime Ministership, Pawar chose to throw his hat into the ring, too. He was a member neither of the CWC nor of the CPP, but he was competing with Arjun Singh and Narayan Dutt Tiwari. His reasoning was two-fold: the Marathas must know that he was a serious contender for the post and his partymen must see that he was no less than the others in the race.
Perhaps the most serious blow he suffered was after the 1992 serial blasts. They damaged considerably more than just a few buildings in Mumbai, leaving gaping holes in Pawar’s impeccable reputation as a daring administrator.
In 1997, when Sitaram Kesari was Congress president, the historic Congress session at Calcutta was held. Pawar publicly invited Sonia Gandhi to lead the party. She attended the session, but left without uttering a word. At the same time, Pawar contested the post of Congress president and lost. All he could manage was a seat in the CWC, that too with the support of Sonia loyalists.
As he grew to become a seasoned politician, Pawar learnt that politics is not played in isolation and a politician must have his finger on the pulse of the people. That is why he opted to lead influential sports bodies. He had a link with cricket, as his wife, Pratibha, is the daughter of cricketer Sadu Sule. Already president of the BCCI and of the All-India Kabaddi Association, Pawar is rumoured to be eyeing the International Cricket Council. He has an impressive gaggle of cricketing friends like Raj Singh Dungarpur, Sunil Gavaskar and Ajit Wadekar to advise him on cricket and its politics.
Fellow politicians consider Pawar untrustworthy while corporate circles view him as dubious. There’s a telling anecdote from 1996. Sonia Gandhi had sent Pawar to Jayalalithaa, soliciting help to become the Prime Minister. Instead, Pawar asked Jayalalithaa to support him for the job. Incensed, Jayalalithaa informed Sonia Gandhi of the messenger had done.
It is said that Maharashtra is ruled by 219 powerful Marathas, and that Pawar has the support of 175. And he can count among his loyalists at least 100 businessmen who are individually worth over Rs 500 crore.
A virtual king in his constituency, Baramati, Pawar is known as the “Charan Singh of western Maharashtra”. One of his trusted henchmen is son-in-law Sadanand Sule. Pawar also got his daughter, Supriya Sule, elected to the Rajya Sabha to continue his political legacy.
Pawar’s about-turns in political life are mirrored even in personal life. Once extremely fond of chewing gutka, he kicked the habit after being struck with oral cancer and also tried unsuccessfully to oust gutka sellers from Maharashtra.
Old faithfuls
* Chandra Ayangar, PS when Sharad Pawar was Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
* Kumud Bansal (IAS, retired), who advises him on education.
* A N Rai, former Police Commissioner of Mumbai.
Friends galore
Sharad Pawar has friends and loyalists in almost every party and region. They include Bhairon Singh Shekhawat of the BJP, Mulayam Singh Yadav of the SP, Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechuri in the Left, Om Prakash Chautala in Haryana, Prakash Singh Badal in Punjab, Farooq Abdullah in J&K, Shankar Singh Vaghela in Gujarat, K. Karunakaran in Kerala, Chandrashekar Rao and Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh. In the corporate world, Rahul Bajaj, Nusli Vadia, Keshav Mahindra and Jignesh Shah are his friends.
Playing politics with cricket
Cricket and politics should not go together. But in India – where cricket has become the opium of the masses, especially the TV-watching middle class – the two have got so intertwined it is impossible to say where cricket begins and politics ends. The mileage cricket affords its chief administrator naturally lures a politician. How many of us know of Sharad Pawar as the Union Agriculture Minister? Most of India knows of him, but as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
No wonder Pawar risked his political reputation and fought two bitter elections to defeat Jagmohan Dalmiya. The first time, Pawar was outsmarted at his own wily games but in the second round he used all his cunning skills. The fight was as ugly as it gets and even the courts had to intervene. Amidst charges of horse-trading, of money changing hands and of television companies playing a role, Pawar emerged the winner but it did no good to his image.
But that matters little to the Maratha strongman, who now appears almost daily on TV, stating he is going to improve the image of the sport in the world. In his tenure, cricket has gone from bad to worse and many feel that Pawar has little and no idea of how to govern the cricketing body. BCCI vote politics is such that even a man of Pawar’s political experience must be finding it difficult to rally all his forces behind him. It is a game of give and take. It is a game of compromises and Pawar has to do his utmost to keep his flock together. He has to assuage the egos of people like former Punjab IAS officer IS Bindra, businessman Lalit Modi, industrialist Chenaai Srinevasan and lawyer-politician Shashank Manohar.
In the game of power-politics, the game of cricket is suffering. But who cares.
Pradeep Magazine
(The writer is National Sports Editor, the Hindustan Times)
Editor, gfiles
