MVA – Prove your point but do not harm democratic norms

By all accounts, the swearing-in of the new government in Maharashtra – by just three people, on Thursday evening was a grand ceremony with crowds gathered at Mumbai's historic Azad Maidan, color coordinated, corporate bigwigs, Bollywood stars besides politicians. The ruling coalition Mahayuti. Those in attendance included eight Union ministers, 12 chief ministers of BJP-ruled states and five chief ministers of its allies. There was more noise about this incident than was anticipated because, after 12 days of long talks between the allies – BJP, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party – only Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his deputy Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar himself took the decision on this. Oath of office.

Opposition leaders from Maharashtra and the rest of India were prominent in his absence. Perhaps the Chief Ministers of the ruling opposition were not invited, but the leadership of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was invited. Neither Sharad Pawar (NCP-SP) nor any of his representatives were present, neither Uddhav Thackeray (SS-UBT) nor his son Aditya, and any state leader from the Congress party attended the swearing-in. Didn't think it appropriate. Celebration. It seems that the MVA is still reeling from the election defeat and has decided to stay away from the event given its many complaints about corruption and malpractices in the electoral process, including the compromised EVMs which led to He had officially contacted the Election Commission of India regarding this. This can explain the boycott of the program by MVA.

However, by far from sending a political message about the integrity of the electoral process, the MVA has accused itself of a democratic lapse. A functioning democratic structure, of which the swearing-in of a new government is an intrinsic part, requires the ruling and opposition parties to carefully discharge their responsibilities in the public interest. Their boycott implies that the opposition parties do not recognize or will not join the Fadnavis-led government – ​​which also makes a mockery of the 46 seats between the three parties. In a democracy, norms and protocols cannot be subject to the whims and fancies of political parties.

The numbers no longer allow for a regular leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, marking a new low for the state assembly as well as its political makeup. How the parties now behave in the House, how they raise issues relevant to citizens, and how they hold the Fadnavis-led government accountable not once or twice but consistently over the next five years remains to be seen. And amidst all this, how the opposition parties conduct themselves within the ambit of democratic functioning is also important. It would have been better for the MVA leaders to attend the swearing in but register a silent constructive protest.