Sushil Kutty
Is there a trade-off — BJP’s Chief Minister in exchange for the Deputy Chief Minister post to Eknath Shinde’s son Shrikant Shinde, who will then serve under Fadnavis? Everybody in the building will be happy and UBT Sena’s ‘dynast’ Aditya Thackeray’s allegation of “total anarchy” in Maharashtra will stand no chance. Though Eknath’s son Shrikant Shinde has denied all “rumours” circulating that he will be deputy chief minister.
Shrikant Shinde, who represents ‘Kalyan’ in the Lok Sabha, if he becomes Deputy Chief Minister, doesn’t take away from the fact that Aditya Thackeray too is a “dynast” and Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray is also a proponent of ‘family-first’.
Both Uddhav and Eknath are not different from President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald J. Trump, whose ‘family-first’ politics are at the core of their hearts unlike Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, who were remarkably immune to ‘family-first’.
Bill and Hillary pursued their individual careers in politics and while Bill became President of the United States, Hillary failed to fit the bill! There was also the Kennedy brothers of John and Robert Kennedy, and now, Robert Kennedy Jr.
Yes, ‘family-first’ has made it big in politics. The Gandhi family, the DMK’s ruling family; the Thackeray family; the Gowda family, and now the Shinde family if Eknath Shinde also takes to ‘family-first’.
News is that caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is at this point in time neck-deep in ‘family first’ politics from being ‘party first’ to begin with. Two-time Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, wanting to become Chief Minister, doesn’t have the family-first option.
Nevertheless, ‘family first’ is the flavour of the season, and not just in India, in both hemispheres. The fiercely independent and ‘USA first’ President-elect Donald Trump’s family holds a special place in his “‘uge-‘uge heart.” Donald Trump’s two elder sons aren’t beneficiaries of ‘family-first’, and the third is not old enough nor qualified enough.
Trump’s two daughters? They’re both married and Trump is happy to apply ‘family-first’ to their in-laws. Ivanka Trump’s hubby Jared Kushner had the position of “Senior Advisor” in the first Trump administration. This time it is Ivanka’s father-in-law Charles Kushner who has been named US Ambassador to France.
Trump’s other daughter, Tiffany Trump, born of a second Trump marriage, also has in-laws Trump can’t avoid rewarding. Tiffany is the quieter of the two daughters but that doesn’t mean Tiffany’s in-laws are any less important — Tiffany’s father-in-law, Lebanese billionaire Massad Boulos, has been named Trump’s senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
“This was the second time in as many days the president-elect has chosen a family member for a key post,” CNN reported. Trump’s pick for “France Ambassador” Charles Kushner, like Hunter Biden, is a “pardoned felon”. Some men are twice lucky, but what riles and what demystifies Donald Trump is his criticism of President Joe Biden for being “family-first!”
President Joe Biden, whose love for his son Hunter Biden is beyond any feeling he has for anybody on the planet, pardoned Hunter even as President Trump was on a ‘family-first’ rampage. Biden argued that the charges against Hunter were brought for political reasons.
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” Biden said. “There has been an effort to break Hunter — in trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
In other words, ‘family-first’ comes first. Biden was all the way saying he did not have plans to pardon Hunter! The answer was ‘no’ even after Trump won the presidency. Biden’s cover is that he “kept his word and did not interfere in the affairs of the Department of Justice.”
But Trump called Biden’s pardon to Hunter “an abuse and miscarriage of justice!” Can Trump be self-righteous when ‘family-first’ is his for keeps? Trump was “pleased” to nominate Ivanka’s father-in-law and “pleased” to appoint Charles Kushner’s tax evading crimes were described by Trump rival Chris Christie as “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes.”
Fact is ‘family first’ rules politics everywhere. The selection of sons, daughters, daughters’ in-laws for critical posts is how politics has been trending for a long-long time with the excuse can’t help it. “This government is the people’s government. I have clarified my role. The honourable Prime Minister and the honourable Home Minister will take the final decision. They are meeting tomorrow. It will be decided. Don’t worry,” Eknath Shinde told the media on Sunday.
Eknath Shinde knows when he is cornered. If push comes to shove, the BJP doesn’t need Shinde Shiv Sena’s quota of Mahayuti seats to form the government — Ajit Pawar’s 41, along with the BJP’s 132, are more than enough to form the government and Pawar is a willing horse to bet on, which makes ‘family-first’ by far the “safest win-win option” for the stoic ‘Mr Eknath Shinde”. (IPA)
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