Is Vazegate going to become Watergate scandal for Uddhav Thackeray?

@prashanthamine

Mumbai: Could the now infamous cop Sachin Vaze or Vazegate scandal become the Watergate scandal for the Shiv Sena’s Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray? Given the heady mix of rouge cops transgressing their boundaries of professional and ethical conduct in an effort to please their political bosses, the murder angle, planting explosives, extortion and alleged fake cases has exploded threatening to pull down the barely one and half year old Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

The Vazegate scandal is all set to join the long list of infamous scandals like the former chief minister A R Antulay’s cement allotment scandal of 1982, or the fraud indulged into by former chief minister Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar for his daughter and January 13, 1982 following the Bombay High Court convicted him in the cement allotment scandal. Nilangekar too resigned soon in 1986 after the court too pulled him up for fraud in his daughter’s MD examination.

But the Vazegate bears some similarities in its cover-ups, passing the buck, denials and national security issues with the Watergate scandal in the United States of America (USA) of 1972, or the infamous John Profumo affair in the United Kingdom (UK) that pulled down the Conservative government of then UK prime minister Harold Macmillan in 1963. Or the even more infamous not-so secret love affair between US president John F Kennedy with Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe in the 1960’s.

Then US President Richard Nixon (1971-74) had initially tried to block the investigation into the break-in into the Watergate building complex on June 17, 1972 that housed the Democrat National Committee office. Nixon resigned without facing the impeachment trial in 1974.

John Profumo who was the Secretary of State for War in1961 in the prime minister Harold Macmillan led cabinet was forced to resign in 1963 after having denied an affair with a 19-year-old British model Christine Keeler. Worst part of it all was that Profumo denied the affair before the House of Commons before the police investigation busted his lies. Keeler was also having an affair with a Soviet spy attached as Defense attaché with the Soviet embassy in London.

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In the John F Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe affair the then Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director J Edgar Hoover warned Kennedy’s younger brother and his Attorney General Richard @ Bobby Kennedy of an impending book that blew the cover of his elder brother, the US President affair with Marilyn Monroe. This scandal too had alleged Soviet spy links against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962-63.

The Vazegate scandal is different as it has all the ingredients of an alleged murder of Mansukh Hiren, planting of explosives in-front of the residence of the most powerful industrialist Mukesh Ambani and now Vaze’s former boss, former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh squarely accusing their equally embattled political bosses of extortion.

The Vazegate scandal has just begun to unravel with the junior ranking patronised cop, Sachin Vaze arguing that he was not alone in the messy crime. He has already spilled the beans naming a few political leaders in the ruling MVA dispensation. Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and the NCP apparently have brushed aside the sensational disclosures of Singh as an attempt by the cop to save his skin from the probe.

The tell-all letter of Singh really raises serious questions about whether the top brass of the MVA leadership knew about the escapades of Vaze and Singh. The latter claims he did bring the same to the notice of the MVA leadership.

According to some political observers Singh’s letter is a covert attempt by the Sena to pin the blame on the NCP and its Home Minister. As it is political grapevine has it that in recent months ties were not that cordial between the Sena and the NCP, with the latter accusing its Sena minister of too much interference into the functioning of the all too key and sensitive Home ministry.

As stated earlier, the breaking-down of the barriers between the bureaucracy and the political executive, the politicisation of the administration and rouge elements creeping into the administration that enjoy political patronage, is like a double-edged sword. It cuts both ways and hurts both.

Unless the political master is shrewd, he can ride the tiger called the administration, otherwise the political master rides inside the belly of the tiger. Either the politician has to be smart enough or the bureaucrat can lead him down the proverbial garden path.

In this case, both Vaze and Singh have spilled the beans as it were, squarely blaming their political masters of making them do their dirty jobs for them. Deshmukh argues that both Vaze and Singh had committed serious lapses. Matters are made even worse when Singh’s successor Hemant Nagrale says he will work towards restoring the pride and glory of the much-vaunted Mumbai Police force.

Statements of Nagrale and Deshmukh go a long way in exposing how deep the rot is in the Mumbai police force which once was compared to the famous British Scotland Yard police. It reflects a sad commentary on the state administration which once was rated as the best, the ideal one and a role model for other states to follow.

Gone are the days when the likes of Bihar cop C K Anil had sought temporary posting in Maharashtra after being fed up with alleged political harassment in his home state of Bihar. It will take some serious efforts at bureaucratic and administrative reforms to restore the credibility and public faith in the administration.

The Vazegate scandal has given a new lease of life to the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which until now was floundering despite the internal differences within the ruling MVA. The alleged scandal has badly exposed the MVA.

Although the political cherry is ripe for the BJPs picking, any attempt to clobber up an alliance with either its former ally the Shiv Sena or the NCP will certainly prove counter-productive for the BJP in the long run as the image of the MVA has dented and sullied.

Moreover, nine months from now the BJP and Sena are all set to clash in the elections to the much-coveted Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). It is little wonder then that senior Sena leaders are tight-lipped over the Vazegate after having initially backed the allegedly tainted cops.

Already the state BJP leadership is facing the wrath of the aggrieved party cadres as its hold over the Jalgaon Municipal Corporation has been released by its arch enemy now, Eknath Khadse. As the heat of the Vazegate reaches the top MVA brass, the MVA government totters to the brink of a collapse.

Another major cause of worry is the spike in Covid-19 cases in recent days. It yet again points to the administration’s failure in controlling the pandemic. It does not augur well for a state like Maharashtra to let things go adrift as its politicians are busy settling political scores.

According to some political experts the spectre of an impending Presidents Rule looms large on the political horizon of the state, Only time and the unravelling investigations into the Vazegate will tell.