So now we have it officially on record – how the BJP topples legitimate elected governments – they “frame ” a few legislators, “fix” a key person in the government, have him and his close associates raided and depend upon him to walk over with several legislators.But that is simply not happening in Maharashtra where they have tried their desperate best – now, in the absence of a breakup in any of the three parties in the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, they thought they would force a mid-term poll by toppling the government on March 10, the day results to elections to five states are due across India.BJP leaders have been boasting about this for the past ten days or so. They might as well have let the sleeping tigers lie. Endorsed by Uddhav and Aditya Thackeray, blessed by Sharad Pawar and supported by many senior Congress leaders, Sanjay Raut, the Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP, has now gone for their jugular.He promised a bomb explosion at his press conference, the BJP called it a damp squib. But nevertheless, they were concerned about what he might be holding against them or withholding from the media.It is clear that former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya were his targets and he promises to provide documentary proof at an appropriate time – of Fadnavis’s involvement with a Haryana-based “milkman” who had ready access to his official bungalow during his tenure as chief minister and who laundered his money; of extortion by the Enforcement Directorate (naming the alleged agents extorting in the ED’s name); of blackmailing the mastermind of the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (Somaiya and his son) and using the money thus earned to buy land at throwaway prices in coastal areas (he asked Environment minister Aaditya Thackeray to probe the deals) and challenging the ED to shoot him down before their offices but stop harassing his friends and family.“We are Bal Thackeray’s progeny. We are afraid of nothing,” he said.The BJP might not have expected that Raut would go to town over a letter he wrote to the Vice President about a RS MP being harassed by the ED or his challenge to Amit Shah to arrest him if he was considered an enemy but leave his family well alone.Raut said he had the go-ahead from Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and senior Congress leaders to start the fightback against the misuse of central agencies by the Central government to cow down opposition leaders.Earlier in the term of this government, Raut and Fadnavis had met at dinner at a suburban hotel, giving rise to speculation that the Shiv Sena might be cosying up to the BJP again. But some had speculated that Raut had been warning Fadnavis to let the government alone or they could use the documents at their disposal to put him in his place.If true, it seemed to have shut up Fadnavis for a while, but that warning might have seemed as an empty threat to the BJP which is leaving no stone unturned to bring down the MVA government.Now, he has indicated which documents they might possess, but clearly the MVA is still merely warning off the BJP – behave or you know what to expect.Late last year, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik had unmasked the Narcotics Control Bureau and exposed details of how the agency was blackmailing and extorting money from celebrities.Now, it is the ED’s turn to face the fire.But letting the world know that BJP leaders use terms like “fix” and “frame” in blackmailing political rivals does enough damage to the party without really holding any surprises for anybody.For the BJP has always been a party of charlatans and shysters and Raut’s revelations only bring the facts into the open.Considering that they had been in alliance with the Shiv Sena for over 25 years, the BJP should have known better than to stir the sleeping tiger.With better leaders in the party than at present, Bal Thackeray had brought both LK Advani and Atal Behari Vajpayee to heel after they refused to consider his demands for better seat allocations during the Lok Sabha polls in 1998.He advised his supporters to teach “Kamalabai” a lesson and when the BJP leaders hotfooted it to Matoshree, he kept them waiting for hours and days feigning illness.He finally relented when he thought he had exhausted them enough, but they ended up giving him exactly what they wanted.Uddhav may not be a chip of the old block, but he has defeated BJP even more soundly than his father did. After all, there is no enemy worse than a friend turned foe.After Raut’s allegations, Amruta Fadnavis, the wife of Devendra Fadnavis, tweeted “A cat has roared again.”But if the cat roars too often – for cats only purr – you might have to reconsider whether it is a tiger in cat’s clothing!
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