The Raj Thackeray phenomenon

The Raj Thackeray phenomenon

No PR agency could have managed for

Raj Thackeray

what the words uttered by him against

North Indians achieved.

He has been on the front pages of newspapers,

and dominating TV channels.

He became the topic of discussion

even in the small towns of UP and Bihar,

as a rising star on the Mumbai horizon like

Amitabh Bachchan of the 'seventies,

spewing sound and fury.

Though he chose to target Bachchan

as the most well known outsider,

his ire was really reserved for the more vulnerable,

helpless and powerless- the UP taxiwalla

and

the Bihari paani pooriwallah on the pavements of the metropolis.

The first casualty

of the Raj politics were the two dead, one a Marathi manoos.

The second casualty

were the north Indians

who had to leave home and hearth

and flee overnight from Nashik.

This was not like targeting the class of contractors

who had exploited tribals over generations

in the country's backward areas,

it was targeting those who had come to Mumbai

from desperate situations to keep body and soul together.

The third casualty

was obviously the disruption in economic life,

with onions rotting in Nashik,

since many of the north Indians worked in the mandi there,

or in the now deserted small scale units,

where the UPites worked.

Raj's diatribe was an assault

on the basics of our Constitution,

on the fundamental right to travel,

reside and take up a job in any part of India.

But

Raj himself could be the biggest casualty

of the process he has unleashed.

He may bask in the media hype today,

good or bad,

and that can be heady.

He may think he has created trouble for

cousin Uddhav

— and this was obviously one of his objectives —

by taking a leaf out of Uncle Thackeray's

book to excite Marathi opinion like

Bal Thackeray did against South Indians

over three decades ago.

Sibling rivalry can be a powerful motivator,

but

the benefit of the diatribe could well go to Uddhav

who heads a well-knit organisation

unlike Raj's breakaway unit.

After all,

Raj's fledgling party

came a cropper in the local elections.

Shiv Sena

is not giving up

what it considers its original plank,

though it has been wooing the north Indians of late.

Uddhav sent a message

only a shade less strident than

the one delivered by Raj,

when he said in the context of the new airport in Mumbai

that if the sons of soil

were not given preference in jobs,

outsiders would be sent packing.

Also a casualty is Raj's image

as a moderate who espoused

"inclusive"

politics not so long ago.

Both Raj and Uddhav had raised hopes that

the new generation of Thackerays wanted to take Maharashtra,

a state which had pioneered social and educational reform,

into a new century around modern developmental themes.

A leader who holds a top position like a chief minister

or a Prime Minister has to have the widest possible acceptance,

and take along everyone,

or at least most people in a society as plural as ours.

A sectional image is not easy to live down once it gets stuck,

and

L K Advani found this to his cost.

It was so difficult over the years to shed the image

of being a hardliner and it i s only after the fracas over

Jinnah that he has become acceptable to the BJP's allies.

The Raj Thackeray phenomenon

is not just about sibling rivalry,

or an insider-outsider issue,

which raises fundamental questions on the

cut-off point for influx.

For influx and synthesis are at the heart of the very idea of India.

The Raj diatribe has once again shown up

the nature of our politics and the way

it enables a politician to take centrestage with

such ease and speed, converting what was

a non-issue into a life and death problem so as to garner votes.

Sectional interests, be it of caste, community,

language, region, subregion,

and of family are increasingly driving our politics today.

Politicians are not thinking about the next 50 years

or

even 10 or 5 years;

they are guided by their interest

"today".

This is the politics not just of Raj Thackeray

or

the Shiv Sena alone,

but also of

Mayawati,

Mulayam Singh Yadav,

of the BJP and the Congress party.

The popular perception today is that

the Congress encouraged Raj Thackeray to try and damage

the Shiv Sena and was deliberately soft towards him.

The Congress

has had adjustments with him in the past.

Party leaders admit there has been a

"give and take" with him.

This is not the first time that the party has tried to play

this type of politics.

The Bhindranwale phenomenon,

which almost lost the country the state of Punjab

and for which Indira Gandhi had to pay with her life,

started off with the Congress building up

Bhindranwale to do damage the Akalis.

Even in political terms,

the Congress runs the risk of falling between

two stools in Maharashtra.

Shiv Sena

is bound to be the beneficiary

of any "pro-Marathi" sentiment.

With its handling of the situation,

the Congress has not enamoured itself

to the north Indians and they had voted for the party last time.

North Indians

have a decisive say in 17 out of 36 constituencies

in Mumbai and influence another 5;

similarly in 10 out of 25 in Thane,

they are powerful; and overall they matter

in around 50 out of the 288 constituencies in the state.

For 12 days

there was a deafening silence from the Government

which is supposed to discharge its constitutional duty

of protecting the life and liberty of all the citizens.

When it did move to register a case against Thackeray,

it was under sections under

which he was bound to get bail.

He did this and was out in two hours.

In this case,

while Rome burnt, Nero was distributing wedding cards.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh

was in Latur and then in Delhi,

personally distributing the invitations

for his son's wedding on Feb. 28,

to Ministers, MPs, AICC officials,

members of the Planning Commission, etc.

The package delivered was a novel way

of inviting guests by a public servant,

in the form of a fancy red box,

its first drawer containing the invite

to the wedding and the reception and the bottom

drawer carrying a box of sweets.

Accompanying the package

was a Paithini silk saree and a male pant-shirt suit.

One last word about the media.

The whole episode has also highlighted

the character of the media,

which bestows on someone like Raj Thackeray

a larger than life image,

something the people of Maharashtra did not do in successive elections.

Raj Thackeray

called a press conference

in which the non-Maharashtrian journalists

were not allowed to attend.

We have known of instances of individual politicians

cutting someone out, if he or she did not write favourably.

But

this was probably the first time

that journalists were kept out

on the basis of their regional identity-another assault

on another constitutional principle.

But,

sadly, there was no protest

from the Maharashtrian journalists as a group.

We are indeed on a slippery slope.

Sriram Savarkar
Hinduism is more a way of life than a method of worship.
Dharmo Rakshati Rakshithaha
If you protect Dharma, Dharma will in turn protect you