MOST INDIAN newspapers and channels carried funny-sounding stories this week about Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and its founder chief Raj Thackeray.

The prize goes to the report headlined ‘UP, Bihar leaders slam Goonda Raj!’
“The violence instigated by Raj Thackeray and his men makes a mockery of our
constitution,” Mayawati thundered, “The administration looked the
other way while people from UP and Bihar were being beaten up on the
streets, and their property destroyed by hooligans of the MNS.” She found
instant support from her bitter rivals in her state. Mobsters of SP stopped
trains and burnt Raj Thackeray’s effigies. Shivpal Yadav, SP general
secretary, lambasted the Maharashtra government, “When Raj Thackeray and his
men are indulging in hooliganism, the state government seems to be sleeping.”

 

Let us for the time being ignore the illegitimacy of the pot calling the kettle black – notorious goons of SP and BSP as well as JD (U) and RJD. Let us try to analytically to look into what is happening in Mumbai. The MNS president triggered the crisis on Friday (February 1) by ridiculing Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan on starting a girls’ school in UP. He also took a dig at some of the superstitious customs of North Indians - particularly during ‘chhath pooja’ rituals. An SP-organised rally at Shivaji Park the following Sunday added fuel to the fire started by his inflammatory remarks. The politicos incited North Indians to resort to ‘lathis’ if they are prevented from coming to Mumbai. MNS retorted they would defeat the lathis with spears.

The Centre reportedly asked for an Action-Taken report apparently at the initiative of Shivraj Patil, Maharashtra Congressman. (Yes, he is still around and India is supposed to have a home minister in him!) Rumours soon spread that Raj would be arrested. Who started them - MNC itself or its rivals – will never be known. Theatres screening Bhojpuri films, hapless taxi drivers and milk and vegetable vendors from North Indian states are bearing the brunt of continued lawlessness triggered by these rumours.

What is not being realised by readily fooled people is that the fracas is no more than a show of strength between MNS and Shiv Sena, the outfit run by Raj’s uncle Bal Keshav Thackeray, the smalltime cartoonist who has become ‘Balasaheb’. Most political outfits are only hoping to derive advantage from the feud. The wily Maratha manipulator Sharad Pawar and the saffron outfit BJP are shadow boxing, while the run-down Congress hopes for their mutual annihilation.

It is not much different from a parasitic police force that passively watches the war between underground mafia gangs. “The police could have detained Raj Thackeray under Section 151(3) of the IPC, where a person can be detained for upto 30 days, if there is a fear of inciting violence, complains (comfortably) retired IPS officer YP Singh. Julio Riberio agrees, “The government could have gone to court and got summons issued against him.”

Over 230 workers of the MNS and the SP have been booked in a dozen cases and two police officials have been suspended in response to these loud noises. But, Mumbai police have not dared to touch the main culprit. He even graced the wedding reception of the police commissioner’s daughter and a meek DCP paid obeisance at his house to confirm if he was satisfied with the security arrangements! KL Prasad, joint commissioner, Law and Order reasoned, “We need enough evidence. We don’t want to arrest him and make him a hero. He will get bail immediately.” Prasad is right; for, that is the way things stand.

What Raj is practicing now is simply a repetition of his uncle’s “Maharashtra is for Maharashtrians” campaign in the 1970s. “Bajao pungi, bhagao lungi” was the war cry Bal Thackeray devised to target and terrorise South Indians then. After carving a niche, he joined hands with the saffron brigade and issued calls to Hindus to form “Hindu suicide squads” to counter alleged Muslim violence. He is currently a respected Hindutva icon advocating the renaming of India as “Hindurashtra”, where only “our religion is to be honoured here” after which “we will look after other religions.” He thus consolidated the OBC vote bank and turned into the ‘remote control’ of the state government in 1995.

 

Thackeray and the murderous goons of Shiv Sena and allied saffron outfits roam about as respected citizens ever since. Bal was indicted by Justice Srikrishna, a comparatively junior judge who accepted the challenge of probing the 1992-93 Mumbai riots, for involvement in the ghastly incidents. However, the police and the judiciary are unable to lay hands on the Fuehrer. His Sena lords over businessmen, builders and Bollywood biggies of Mumbai even more ruthless extortions than the dreaded D Company. Thackeray wrote, “Muslims should draw a lesson from the demolition of the Babri Masjid, otherwise they will meet the same fate as the Babri Masjid. Muslims who criticise the demolition are without religion, without a nation.” Even as everyone is aware what his incendiary articles had to do with the riots that killed 900 people, Mumbai High Court bowed before him and held, “These articles do not criticise Muslims as a whole, but Muslims who are traitors in India!” Likewise, a January 1993 essay claiming “The ugly and violent form of Muslim traitors was witnessed in the city yesterday…. Our prophecy has come true. A Muslim, whichever country he belongs to, whatever position he occupies, is first a Muslim” was found not amounting to “creating feelings of ill-will, spite and hatred!”

The sympathy wave all over India in favour of Amitabh Bachchan is quixotic. He had started dabbling in politics with the patronage of his ‘friends’ Rajiv and Sanjay of the Nehru dynasty. He never fully retired from the dirty profession as can be seen from ties with the UP wheeler-dealer Amar Singh. Just two years ago, Amitabh was the main attraction at a book release function – a photo-biography of Bal Thackeray by his pet nephew Raj. Also, one of the very first felicitations received by Big B upon his being declared a farmer by the UP government was the junior Thackeray. A Sena toughie thinking of defecting to MNS reminisces, “Those were the days when it was an unwritten rule that whenever Raj would organise a big function, Bachchan would be the chief guest.” How the superstar benefited and used that clout to acquire huge tracts of land in Maharashtra is anyone’s guess.

That the Big B has now become an object of attack for the deposed heir-apparent of the outfit is only logical! The ambitious nephew was widely expected to take the reins from its founder ‘senapati’, throwing just crumbs at his low-profile cousin Uddhav, Bala’s son. When that did not materialise, it has become necessary for him to build one. Bachchan recently launched the debut music album of Aditya, Uddhav’s son. The senior Thackeray deputed Uddhav to attend the wedding of Abhishek and Aishwarya on his behalf. The Bachchans knew that Raj had parted ways from the Sena, and so did not give him even a casual invite. All these gave an indication that Bachchan was closer to Uddhav’s family than Raj’s. Naturally, nobody can blame him for adopting the same tactics he mastered under his ‘illustrious’ uncle!

Shiv Sena realises pretty well that Raj’s offensive against North Indians – portraying himself as the messiah of the Marathi Manoos – could eat into its own Marathi votebank. Raj Thackeray is obviously hijacking the Sena’s original trump card: His followers say, “It’s not a good thing that our jobs are going to outsiders. How will we like it? The Shiv Sena used to raise this issue before. But, they are not raising it anymore.” An alarmed Manohar Joshi, who once presided over the ‘honourable’ Parliament, declares, “’The
Marathi Manoos is very important to us.” After all, a typical Marathi man in Mumbai streets feels, “They can’t come from outside and sit on our heads.” Several ‘intellectuals’ from the northern states have resorted to condemning offhand the incidents in Mumbai, insisting that all Indians have the full right to venture in any part of the country for education, employment or other purpose. Their argument is that despite the physical boundaries between states, we feel proud in referring to ourselves as Indians, boasting of 5000 years of rich history when people of different religions have been living in perfect harmony.

What our ‘nationalists’ forget is that except during the last 300 years of colonial rule during the ‘5000 years of rich history’, India has never been one nation! Like Europe, it is the habitat of distinct nationalities, which the politicians want to synthetically unite for their own advantage. The right approach to contain harassments to the common public is to recognise that the entity headquartered New Delhi can, at best, be a confederation like the European Union.

Let us admit that the so-called integration of the erstwhile 600 princely states by Vallabhbhai Patel into one dominion has been an utter failure. That has created more problems than it sought to solve. While citizens may be allowed free movement in all territories, indiscriminate migration of workers from one region to another will only serve unscrupulous elements. For example, a person from any of the territories of India, even though ‘proudly’ calling himself an ‘Asian’, is not permitted to settle in China or Japan without proper procedure. The ‘integral part of India’ rhetoric will only lead to more unseen divisions and tensions.