Tragedy of this ‘mother of democracy’, says Sibal on Maharashtra speaker ruling

A day after the declaration of the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the ‘real’ Shiv Sena by Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal remarked that the entire scenario was a pre-scripted play, labelling it a farce with no available recourse.

A day after the declaration of the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the ‘real’ Shiv Sena by Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal remarked that the entire scenario was a pre-scripted play, labelling it a farce with no available recourse.

Wednesday’s ruling, favouring Shinde’s faction as the legitimate political party, solidified Mr. Shinde’s position, and enhanced his political influence within the ruling coalition, comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar group), just ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

Mr. Sibal expressed his views on the matter, highlighting the tragic state of this ‘mother of democracy.’ “Speaker (as Tribunal): Shindes faction is real Sena. The play was scripted long ago. We watch the farce being played out with no recourse,” he said in a post on the microblogging site X (formerly Twitter). “That is the tragedy of this ‘mother of democracy’,” the former Union Minister said.

In his almost two hours-long reading Mr. Narwekar highlighted the operative part of his judgement on the cross-petitions by Shiv Sena factions seeking disqualification of each other’s MLAs following a split in the party in 2022. The Speaker rejected the petitions of both factions, citing a lack of valid grounds.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Shiv Sena (UBT) criticised the Speaker for endorsing Chief Minister Shinde’s party as the ‘real’ Shiv Sena, accusing the recognition of a ‘gang of thieves’ as a violation of the Constitution.

In an editorial in Saamana, the Sena (UBT) warned that the people of the State would not forgive those responsible and targeted the ruling BJP.

The editorial accused Mr. Narwekar of trampling on the Constitution by recognising a ‘gang of thieves’, asserting that the Speaker’s decision was pre-determined and authored by his superiors in Delhi. It alleged that handing over Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena to ‘traitors’ amounted to dishonesty with Maharashtra.