You reap what you sow. The Opposition in Maharashtra did exactly the same in the budget session of the state legislature which will end early this week. When it came to grilling the government on issues of governance such as mitigation of unprecedented drought, the opposition went ahead with raising emotional issues that gave the BJP ample bandwidth to get even with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party.

At the end, the real issues remained largely unattended both by the ruling coalition and the opposition. The BJP escaped unhurt and successfully created impression that the Opposition didn’t have teeth of steel. The BJP used all its brilliance to surcharge the atmosphere with a nationalistic rhetoric that left self-proclaimed secular forces exposed in the matters of legislative business and minority politics. Bulk of credit for turning the tables on opposition should go to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who said he was willing to ‘sacrifice’ his office for the sake of ‘Bharat Mata’. He punctuated his replies to debates with a high emotional quotient that the opposition tried to balance unsuccessfully.