Ministry of Cooperation created by Modi-Shah duo to take on Sharad Pawar?

With additional charge of the newly-created Ministry of Cooperation given to Home Minister Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has identified ‘Political Enemy No.1’ – NCP supremo Sharad Pawar – who has been anchoring efforts to cobble up a viable and winning political alternative to the Modi-Shah BJP juggernaut, which saw near total annihilation in the West Bengal assembly polls even as the second Covid wave drowned Modi’s international standing.

The focus is on Maharashtra, but the panacea is from Gujarat. For those who don’t know, Sharad Pawar is emperor of Maharashtra cooperatives and the ‘Shah’ of Gujarat cooperatives was Amit Shah. Shah, by heading the new Ministry will try to carve out the cooperatives' niche from under Pawar’s nose.

At least that’s the goal, which will not be spoken aloud. Like somebody said to nobody in particular, with the “creation of the Ministry of Cooperation and giving Union Home Minister Amit Shah additional charge of the ministry, Modi has opened new doors in politics with focus on Maharashtra”.

It is a warning to Sharad Pawar, a move to clip his wings if he gets too flighty and feisty in the next couple of years before General Elections 2024. Like they say, Narendra Modi lives and breathes electoral politics. Regular doses of electoral victories is what keeps Modi in 'good' mood, and on his toes. It also ensures that his massive ego stays well fed!

So, like that somebody said, “It would be interesting to see how Shah steers the ministry”. Shah, they say, matches Kautilya in cunning and has “extensive experience in cooperatives”. Shah is troubleshooter and ego-embalmer for Narendra Modi. He has the reputation of ‘Election Winner No.1’, and is the ultimate grassroots politician in the Modi camp.

Now, with the BJP and Narendra Modi both wallowing in a royal dingbat of a crisis, the sort never seen or envisaged, Shah has once again been assigned the task to pull the BJP out of the morass of Modi’s making. Shah will have to write a new chapter in “cooperation with Narendra Modi”.

Narendra Modi has heard of that encomium sung in praise of Amit Shah. Shah is expected to tame the Maharashtra cooperatives. The cooperative movement in Maharashtra is decades old and caught on famously under the aegis and aura of Sharad Pawar, especially between 1960 and 1980.

Today, cooperatives are particularly strong in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have vast experience in cooperatives-politics, and are keenly aware that political power comes through hold over cooperatives. Social Media is abuzz with talk of how Modi-Shah wants to scupper Pawar’s 2024 goals with power over cooperatives.

Besides 2024, which lies in the future, the Modi-Shah duo also has other immediate scores to settle with Sharad Pawar. Especially avenge BJP’s failure to convince Pawar to support a BJP-led government in Maharashtra. It’s seen as a big Shah-failure, and with the Ministry of Cooperation under his belt, Shah, with his elephantine memory, can at least hope to break even with Pawar.

Modi and Shah have the habit of lording over everything they survey; influence everyone in their vicinity and also those far from their vicinity. Shah is a former president of the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank. He tasted cooperatives-power then, and wants to taste it again. The Ministry of Cooperation is a game-changer for him and Narendra Modi, they seem to feel.

Cooperatives in sugar and milk have done extremely well. Collective bargaining has always been for the common good. Cooperatives in banking and finance had also spread to the grassroots. There are cooperative marketing societies, and cooperative housing societies.

But Shah and his Ministry of Cooperation will soon thrust a battle of politics of cooperatives on India. Cooperatives spell big money – the hard-earned money of millions upon millions at the grassroots of life. Moneys that are spread out in loans and borrowings to finance businesses and politics.

By the way, cooperation is in the concurrent list and both state and Central governments govern cooperatives. But cooperatives have managed to flourish and make it good only in a few states. Will a dedicated and separate Ministry of Cooperation change the current scenario? Or will Modi and Shah use the ministry only to establish their sway on India, to win elections?

The problem is that politics is too ingrained in the cooperatives movement, from the grassroots to the niche levels. Most Maharashtra and Gujarat politicians have one foot in cooperatives.

In fact, both Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar began their political careers from cooperatives. It doesn’t matter who/which party rules Maharashtra, that politician/party should have a strong base in cooperatives. The BJP under Devendra Fadnavis did not have overwhelming control over the funds of cooperatives. Modi and Shah hope to change that with control of the Ministry of Cooperation.

(IPA Service)

Views are personal