State of drift

Maharashtra’s politics is now so reflexively chauvinistic that its excesses no longer surprise. After a day spent plotting how to scotch revisionist writing on religious and national icons,the state government has nominated itself to lead an agitation for altering the map of neighbouring Karnataka. Chief Minister Ashok Chavan demanded that Belgaum and 865 villages with Marathi speakers in Karnataka be declared Union territory till the Supreme Court pronounced on their status. It is not just out of line for a state government to interfere in the administration of another state — the politics of competitive chauvinism that’s been reignited this week reflects the abdication of responsible policy-making in Maharashtra.

Chavan’s demand accompanied a resolution by the Maharashtra assembly asking the Centre to revisit its stance on the border dispute. The Centre’s affidavit in the SC had rebuffed the argument that these areas had been wrongly incorporated in Karnataka. It is not just that political parties are vying with each other to reflect the tension between the two states. They have been doing enough to fuel it. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena,predictably,outdid the rest by asking for a seat to be reserved in the state assembly for a representative of the areas under dispute.

And that demand captures the state of play in Maharashtra. Parties like the MNS have taken the discourse so decisively to the fringe that it’s often ignored that the rest of the fray has moved the middle ground that much closer to the chauvinist extreme. One reason for this is that there is a perception that in the state’s traditionally four-party race,the Shiv Sena’s political space is up for grabs. To claim that space,the Congress,BJP and NCP allow discourse to be set on the Senas’ terms. Witness,most alarmingly,the reaction across the political spectrum on the SC overturning a ban on a book on Shivaji. But the overall effect is that the state has a government uninterested in development and an opposition uninterested in holding it to account.