post-mortem of attack and action

Vinayak Mete, the alleged mastermind of attack on Kumar Ketkar’s house has been sacked from the post of NCP vice president. The delayed action against him, conspicuous silence from NCP upper echelons and the criticism of attack from few non-Maratha leaders have different theories taking rounds. The action against Mete in itself is a façade.

A popular theory first drawn immediately after attack was Mete was unhappy in the party following denial of MLC post to him. This was followed by another presumption: It was just to get publicity and shot into fame overnight. Analyzing the attack, some stated that confusion prevailing among leaders and workers because of party’s flip-flop on various issues. And now after action, a new theory has come up. It states that to attack was to contain Ketkar, who was being over critical against government’s failure in the recent past.

Well, I think, the attack has its roots in the caste-politics that rules the game. There are few things one need to look into. First, although Mete is very well a leader of the party, the attack was carried out by his little known organization called Shiv Sangram. A resemblance that was to be drawn out from the attack on Bhandarkar Institute. Sambhaji brigade, which enjoys silent and not so silent support of NCP, was responsible for the four-year-old attack. The common thread in both attacks is: Chattrapati Shivaji. This time however, there was no single word against Shivaji in Ketkar's editorial, and Mete knew it well.

Second, post attack on Ketkar, only few NCP leaders including Gurunath Kulkarni, D P Tripathi openly criticized the action. The most coveted reaction from Sharad Pawar never came. Why didn’t Pawar in clear terms criticized Mete or why not strict action has been taken against him (Mete) by party ?. Pawar, whose family is set to launch newly launched english daily, in Delhi by mid-August, won't. He will neither invite wrath from maratha communiy nor let the his family owned daily to be isolated.

R R Patil, spoke, but as a Batmidar says, it was ‘government language’.

Many remember, immediately after attack on BORI, Pawar’s first reaction was critical. However the very next day in an election rally in Pune, Pawar in unambiguous terms criticized the controversial book on Shivaji. The equations changed thereafter and party got enough ammo for general elections.

To put it into perspective, we need to couple both the incidents, plus, few recent developments. The elections are drawing closer; both NCP and Congress anticipate heavy anti-incumbency wave. The Shiv sena and recently born MNS have taken up issue of Marathi while congress enjoys non-Marathi and non-maratha vote-bank.

For the inclusion in OBC category, a demand has been made by dominant caste in the state, to which government has not said NO. The state government, possibly influenced by Gujjar effect, has also begun preliminary preparations for this. Chhagan Bhujbal’s samata parishad too is gaining momentum.

Amidst such situation NCP has one safe card to play. The same card they played in last general elections. It hopes to play the card and win over elections this time too.