Snollygoster: How Shashi Tharoor described Maharashtra situation in one word

NEW DELHI:  As the political chaos in Maharashtra heightened with the BJP's stunning comeback to power in the state with the support of NCP leader Ajit Pawar, leader Shashi Tharoor, whose extensive English vocabulary often becomes the source of amusement, seems to be at a loss of words to describe his take of the situation.

The Lok Sabha member retweeted a post of his from July 2017 in which he used the word "snollygoster" (an American slang) to describe a "shrewd, unprincipled politician".

The original tweet, posted on July 27, 2017, read, "Word of the day! Definition of *snollygoster* ... US dialect: a shrewd, unprincipled politician ... First Known Use: 1845 ... Most recent use: 26/7/17".

Retweeting his old tweet, Tharoor wrote, "Correction: Most recent use: 23 November 2019, Mumbai."

Correction: Most recent use: 23 November 2019, Mumbai https://t.co/W6KKVro1Ra

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) November 23, 2019

The original tweet was believed to be a jibe at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. This was when the Janata Dal (United) president broke away from the Mahagathbandhan or the grand alliance with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress and returned to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Kumar’s move had come after RJD chief Lalu Prasad had rejected the demand for his son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi’s resignation over alleged railway hotel tender scam.

Two years later, according to Tharoor, snollygoster is the word that perfectly describes the state of Indian politics.

On November 23, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the Maharashtra Chief Minister for a second term while Nationalist Conference Party chief Sharad Pawar's nephew, Ajit Pawar, became his deputy. This happened right when Sharad Pawar had proposed Uddhav Thackeray's name for the CM’s post after leaving the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP joint meet in the same evening.

However, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said that some MLAs of his party were cheated into attending the early morning oath ceremony in which his nephew Ajit Pawar was sworn in along with the BJP's Devendra Fadnavis. He further claimed that Ajit Pawar's decision was his own and the party neither supports it or endorses it.

President's rule was revoked early morning to facilitate the sudden oath ceremony. According to a Home Ministry notification, President Ram Nath Kovind issued the proclamation for revocation of the central rule early this morning.