The spotlight on UPA’s presidential candidate Pratibha Patil has brought into focus a long standing phenomenon: the intricate networks that bind politicians, sugar cooperatives, banks and educational institutions in Maharashtra. Whole empires have been built on that foundation in the state. How did it all begin? Where does it lead to? Rakshit Sonawane explains

• How did the nexus between politicians, sugar cooperatives, banks and educational institutions develop in Maharashtra?

The backlog of development being vast, the cooperative movement initially came as a breather for the people of Maharashtra. It also perfectly suited the socialist mood in post-Independence India. But what began as a cooperative venture to provide relief to the poor from atrocities of moneylenders, zamindars and other powerful people, gradually transformed into private fiefdoms.

A typical empire began with a politician getting government land at a throwaway price for setting up a school or a sugar/milk/bank cooperative “for the development of the common man.” Then, policies were worked out in a manner such that on the pretext of helping the common villager or farmer, those promoting the cooperatives got incentives.

Once such cooperatives began functioning, they became power-centres for those running them. The membership of cooperatives provided captive voters for the politicians. Through sugar and milk cooperatives, the fate of local farmers rested in the hands of the politicians running the cooperatives. Through educational institutions, politicians could create an atmosphere of social service being done apart from making available skilled and faithful manpower (students and teachers) for running their empires (including providing assistance during elections).

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