Supriya Sule is an MP from the Nationalist Congress Party, which is led by her father Sharad Pawar. She talks at length about parliamentary practices and processes, the Narendra Modi government’s handling of the pandemic, the Shiv Sena split, the future of NCP, dynastics politics, and Sonia Gandhi’s treatment within the Congress.

“I am their opponent but that doesn’t mean I have to take an extreme left or extreme right stance,” she says while talking about the functioning of the parliament, referring to the BJP. “The beauty of any democracy is, ‘Let’s take the good.’ It is nation first.”

But, she adds, “you have no choice when somebody is attacking you and going for you.”

Talking about how the media treats the opposition, she says, “I see a lot of fear among people now. That’s a change I definitely see in society. I have a lot of friends who are professionals who tell me, ‘You know this is what I mean but don’t say I said it. I have to earn in this country, I have to work professionally. This is the New India that I am seeing.”

On Eknath Shinde splitting the Shiv Sena and allying with the BJP to form the government in Maharashtra at the expense of the Congress-Sena-NCP coalition, Sule says, “Becoming disruptive for a selfish achievement gets you somewhere for a small time but doesn’t sustain in the long run…Bal Thackery himself said that after him the party would be led by Uddhav Thackeray…The succession plan was clear and unchallenged. If you had to challenge Uddhav ji’s leadership you should have challenged it then.”

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Text by Nawaal Arshad