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Scamster BJP? It's puzzling to innocent by-standers as to why would partners-in-crime fall apart like this

By Anand Mazgaonkar
Scamster BJP! 
That ain’t some enemy of BJP, some Opposition Party saying that. That’s BJP’s own ally, their oldest partner Shiv Sena saying that. Not just saying that they’ve printed their intimate stories without anyone seeking to peek into their bedroom.
It was a Hindu marriage made in heaven, something that was both a love marriage and arranged marriage rolled into one, one ordained by the 33 crore Indian Gods. Some marriages are funny. They swear in the name of God that they want to be together for seven lives, seven incarnations, but would rather not have this life together!
Now, this is not the first time that the BJP and Shiv Sena have washed their dirty linen in public and put it out dry in the open for people to amuse themselves with. In the last few years nobody could tell if what they were doing together was playing to the gallery, posturing, grandstanding, providing free entertainment in gloomy environment, acrimonious cohabitation, amicable divorce, sharing the spoils of power or simply scratching each other’s back with claws. Whatever it was, nobody cared to give it a second look.
Indian politics, like politics everywhere, is funny. Bedmates behave like enemies, enemies sleep together politically, everyone’s hero and villain at the same time, nobody sees need for psychiatric care. Only the toiling, tax-paying public feels sick without recourse.
What’s puzzling to innocent by-standers is why would partners-in-crime fall apart like this. After all, they’ve slugged it out together through the rough and the smooth. They have been together in opposition, together in power, together in awarding contracts whether it was the Mumbai Municipal Corporation, Maharashtra State or in the NDA at the Centre. They were together in Ayodhya at the Babri mosque in 1992 and the riots and killings thereafter.
Remember Mr Bal Thakeray said he was proud that “it was his boys…..”, even as Mr Vajpayee and Advani flip-flopped, unable to decide if they liked or were sad over what happened, saying one thing first, then the opposite? That really is the most marvellous example of sticking together through the thick and the thin. Poor Justice Shrikrishna is still sad and Justice Liberhan still struggling.
Somebody should educate Mr. Modi, Mr. Amit Shah, Mr. Devendra Fadnavis, Mr. Uddhav Thakerey that the cardinal rule for all sleazy partnerships has to be a ‘conspiracy of silence.’ They should at least turn a blind eye to each other’s vices unless they’ve had pre-nuptials like Hollywood billionaires.
It would actually be a bright idea for Indian law firms to buy template pre-nuptial agreements from Hollywood stars and sell them to Indian political monkeys who jump from branch to branch in quest of power. That would make BJP-Shiv Sena, BJP-Nitish Kumar, Nitish Kumar-Laloo Yadav and all other marriages and divorces so much smoother.
And everyone can live happily ever after, until the next wedding and divorce.

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