THE resignation of Mr. Anil Deshmukh as Maharashtra’s Home Minister following a Bombay High Court Directive to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to complete the probe into his alleged indulgence in money extortion practices actually represents only a tip of the proverbial iceberg of corruption that often underlines political activity in many places of consequence. Given the overall situation, Mr. Deshmukh’s resignation came on expected lines. In the light of allegations levelled against him by senior police officer Mr. Param Bir Singh, it would have been only preposterous not to expect Mr. Deshmukh to be chucked out of his ministerial position.

 

Though Mr. Deshmukh has cited moral reason not to continue as Home Minister, it is common knowledge that he was asked to step aside and help in the process of saving the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Government headed by Chief Minister Mr. Uddhav Thackeray from collapse. Looking at intriguing details of the whole affair, it may not be too wrong to suspect that even Mr. Anil Deshmukh’s resignation could save the State Government from a premature ouster. Though every person in the street knows that massive corruption often dominates political activity, nobody has actual evidence of what goes on beneath the surface -- especially in a place like Mumbai which is considered to be the nation’s commercial capital. And in that unholy, underground endeavour, the Police Department is often thought to be a partner.

 

This unholy nexus has been highlighted very tellingly in literature and cinema and the common man feels that there is every reason to believe that corruption occupies the core of much of political activity -- across the country, though under the cover of a veneer-thin bubble (of feigned ignorance of the people in general). Only occasionally, however, the bubble gets punctured and episodes similar to the one being acted out in Maharashtra explode into public domain. Otherwise, everybody knows -- though without credible evidence -- that it is only rarely possible that no corruption of any sort taints political activity. In this particular case, however, the CBI has a major challenge -- to file a detailed report on the corrupt practices alleged in Mr. Param Singh’s letter. Mr. Param Bir Singh’s prayer was supported by two other petitions, making it necessary for the honourable High Court of Bombay to take an urgent view of the situation. It is true that the Maharashtra Government and Mr. Anil Deshmukh has announced their decision to approach the Supreme Court against the High Court order. The law, of course, will take its own course, as is said proverbially. But there is little doubt that the allegations of corrupt practices now doing the rounds in Maharashtra are quite likely to engulf the whole of State Government from top to bottom.

 

We agree with former Maharashtra Chief Minister Mr. Devendra Fadnavis that the silence of incumbent Chief Minister Mr. Uddhav Thackeray on the whole issue is strange, to say the least. While Mr. Fadnavis may have his political reasons to express shock and surprise over the Chief Minister’s silence, we have our own reasons to do so. For, when a major functionary of the Government is alleged to have been involved in a corruption of such gravity, a simple comment from the Head of the Government is very much in order so as to clear the moral credentials of the system he presides over. Perhaps, for Mr. Thackeray, the situation is too overwhelming to say anything sensible at least at this stage. There be no reason for anybody to expect matters to cool down following Mr. Deshmukh’s resignation. The political cauldron will boil over in the time to come, spewing a lot of muck. The MVA Government may be able to save itself for a while, but the image of its three constituents now stands nearly permanently tarnished. And this applies all the more pronouncedly to Mr. Sharad Pawar, the patriarch of Maharashtra politics and founder of the Nationalist Congress Party. The ugly details of the situation have raised a question-mark on his political persona, as well.