What Ajit Pawar's Death Means for Maharashtra's Political Future; Fear of Accountability in Indian Universities and the Backlash to UGC’s Equity Regulations
Assam CM Sarma's communal remarks; why the India-EU free trade deal makes sense on the defence side
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January 28, 2026
Siddharth Varadarajan
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar was killed today when the Learjet aircraft he was flying in crash-landed Wednesday morning near the runway in his hometown of Baramati. The pilot, co-pilot and flight attendant were also killed, as was a security officer. Maharashtra has declared a three-day mourning period. Part of the influential Pawar political family, Ajit (66) was deputy chief minister a record six times and had split the Nationalist Congress Party in 2023 by leading a breakaway faction of leaders from the erstwhile party led by his uncle Sharad Pawar; they joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
The ill-fated jet had performed a go-around above the Baramati airport and went silent after its pilot reported sighting the runway after a few unsuccessful attempts, the civil aviation ministry said. Its statement also recalled that the company operating the Learjet 45, VSR Ventures, had run another such aircraft that in September 2023 was involved in an accident in Mumbai. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, which has taken over the probe into Wednesday’s crash, is investigating the 2023 incident. The Economic Times‘s aviation reporter Arindam Majumder notes that the AAIB is yet to publish a final report in the 2023 case. “What does that say about India’s accident investigation process? Were there any learnings from 2023?” he asked. AAIB officials arrived at VSR’s Delhi office on Wednesday morning.
Pawar’s death will also have an impact on Maharashtra’s politics. There is no immediate threat to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP, who has 132 out of 288 seats and is in coalition with Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction (41 seats) as well as the Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde (57 seats). But as Liz Mathew argues, pressure will build for the Ajit Pawar faction to reunite with Sharad Pawar and whether this happens outside or inside the NDA, it is going to unsettle Fadnavis.
Recent protests over the newly framed equity rules by the University Grants Commission (UGC) mark a new – yet inevitable – turn in the Hindutva politics of victimhood, writes Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta.
“For 11 years, the Sangh parivar has amplified the notion that the Hindus, the majority community constituting nearly 80% of the country’s population, has been shortchanged in independent India. It has repeatedly portrayed the Hindus as vulnerable despite evidence to the contrary…. However, this victimhood complex among Hindus who do wield social, political and economic power has now grown beyond the party’s control, as the protests by so-called upper-caste groups over the equity rules indicate.”
Against the backdrop of a growing trust deficit with Washington, Moscow’s endless war in Ukraine and growing reliance on Beijing, and Israel’s
